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ALTEAUJS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRAR 

HISTORY 

or 

ELIZABETH 



QUEEN Or ENGLAND 



BY 



JACOB ABBOTT 



WITH TORTY-N1NE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Copyright 1900 by Henry Altemus Company 




43219 



Library of Ce^^reee 

"'wu Copies Received 
SEP 4 1900 

Copyright entry 

SECOND COPY. 

Delivered t« 

ORDER DIVISION, 
£FP 7 1900 



74324 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 


PAGE 


Elizabeth's Mother 


. 13 


CHAPTER II. 




The Childhood of a Princess 


. 31 


CHAPTER III. 




Lady Jane Grey .... 


. 48 


CHAPTER IV. 




The Spanish Match 


. 70 


CHAPTER V. 




Elizabeth in the Tower 


. 88 


CHAPTER VI- 




The Accession to the Throne 


. 106 


CHAPTER VII. 




The War in Scotland 


. 126 


CHAPTER VIII. 




Elizabeth's Lovers 


. 145 


CHAPTER IX. 




Personal Character 


. 167 


CHAPTER X. 




The Invincible Armada 


. 186 


CHAPTER XL 




The Earl of Essex 


. 208 


CHAPTER XII. 




The Conclusion .... 


. 234 



(v) 




Elizabeth, vi 

Sedan Chair, used in the time of Elizabeth. 



«itei6 




ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Frontispiece. 
page vi 
. " x 



facing " 



Lady Jane Grey in the Tower 
Sedan Chair, Time of Elizabeth . 
Execution at the Stake .... 

Headpiece, Chapter I 

The Trial of Queen Catherine . facing 

Marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, " 

Thomas Cranmer .... 

Arrest of Anne Boleyn 

King Henry VIII. 

Headpiece, Chapter II. 

Window in Anne Boleyn's Boom . 

Headpiece, Chapter III. 

Lady Jane Grey .... 

Queen Mary Watching an Execution 

Headpiece, Chapter IV. 

Philip II. Leaving England . 

Headpiece, Chapter V. 

The Tower of London . . . facing 

Place of Execution in the Tower 

Headpiece, Chapter VI. 

Mary, Queen of England . . facing 

Elizabeth Acknowledged by the Clergy, " 

Queen Elizabeth of England . facing 

Courtiers and Ladies, Time of Elizabeth . 

Headpiece, Chapter VII 

Mary, Queen of Scots . 



13 

16 
18 
20 
24 
26 
31 
47 
48 
50 
< 69 
•' 70 
« 87 
« 88 
" 94 
" 105 
" 106 
" 110 
" 118 
" 122 
« 125 
" 126 
" 143 



OH) 



Vlll 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Headpiece, Chapter VIII. . 

Queen Elizabeth and Suitor . 

Philip II. of Spain 

Catherine de Medici 

Headpiece, Chapter IX. 

Elizabeth Signing Mary's Death Warrant , 

State Progress of Elizabeth . 

Headpiece, Chapter X. 

Sir Francis Drake 

Drake's Return to England . 

The English Fleet Before Cadiz 

Destruction of the Spanish Armad 

Rejoicings Over the Victory 

Headpiece, Chapter XI. 

Elizabeth Condemns Essex to the Towei 

Essex Landing at the Traitor's (iate 

Execution of the Earl of Essex 

Headpiece, Chapter XII. 

Tomb of Queen Elizabeth 

Westminster Abbey 

King James I. of England . 



. page 
facin 



facins 



facii 



facing 



145 

146 
148 
1G6 
107 
170 
185 
186 
194 
198 
202 
204 
206 
208 
216 
230 
233 
234 
247 
248 
251 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The reign of Elizabeth was prolific of adven- 
ture, and has furnished an ever-fruitful source 
from which the historian can find material. It 
was the time when England first became a sea- 
power, and that policy of colonial expansion 
was begun which has built the British Empire. 
The great blot upon Elizabeth's name was 
the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. They 
were cousins, yet implacable foes. Much evil 
might have been spared had Elizabeth pur- 
sued a straightforward course when her rival 
was thrown into her hands. 

From her father Elizabeth inherited physical 
strength, energy, a fiery temper, an inclination 
to coarseness and a passion for splendor. It is 
probable that her insincerity, jealousy and love 
of artifice is attributable to her mother. The 
romantic side of Elizabeth's life is noted for 
its prominence, as for forty years one matri- 
monial scheme or violent passion succeeded 
another. Elizabeth was highly popular with 
her subjects, and she possessed the invaluable 
faculty of selecting the most capable of the 
men around her as her political advisers. 

(ix) 



=SWffi*--~ 



jm.:pmh/-: ; N •- s 



fr»v 



*%5ky ••^. 




Elizabeth, x 



Execution at the Stake. 




QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



CHAPTER I. 



ELIZABETH S MOTHER. 



Travellers, in ascending the Thames by 
the steamboat from Rotterdam, on their re- 
turn from an excursion to the Rhine, have 
often their attention strongly attracted by 
what appears to be a splendid palace on the 
banks of the river at Greenwich. The edifice 
is not a palace, however, but a hospital, or, 
rather, a retreat where the worn out, maimed, 
and crippled veterans of the English navy 
spend the remnant of their days in comfort 
and peace, on pensions allowed them by the 
government in whose service they have spent 
their strength or lost their limbs. The magnifi- 
cent buildings of the 'hospital stand on level 
land near the river. Behind them there is a 
beautiful park, which extends over the undu- 
lating and rising ground in the rear; and on 
the summit of one of the eminences there is 

the famous Greenwich Observatory, on the 

13 



14 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

precision of whose quadrants and microme- 
ters depend those calculations by which the 
navigation of the world is guided. The most 
unconcerned and careless spectator is inter- 
ested in the manner in which the ships which 
throng the river all the way from Greenwich 
to London, "take their time" from this ob- 
servatory before setting sail for distant seas. 
From the top of a cupola surmounting the 
edifice, a slender pole ascends, with a black 
ball upon it, so constructed as to slide up and 
down for a few feet upon the pole. When the 
hour of 12 M. approaches, the ball slowly 
rises to within a few inches of the top, warn- 
ing the ship-masters in the river to be ready 
with their chronometers, to observe and note 
the precise instant of its fall. When a few 
seconds only remain of the time, the ball as- 
cends the remainder of the distance by a very 
deliberate motion, and then drops suddenly 
when the instant arrives. The ships depart 
on their several destinations,' and for months 
afterward when thousands of miles away, they 
depend for their safety in dark and stormy 
nights, and among dangerous reefs and rocky 
shores, on the nice approximation to correct- 
ness in the note of time which this descending 
ball had given them. 



ELIZABETH'S MOTHER. 1 5 

This is Greenwich, as it exists at the pres- 
ent day. At the time when the events oc- 
curred which are to be related in this nar- 
rative, it was most known on account of a 
royal palace which was situated there. This 
palace was the residence of the then queen 
consort of England. The king reigning at 
that time was Henry the Eighth. He was an 
unprincipled and cruel tyrant, and the chief 
business of his life seemed to be selecting and 
marrying new queens, making room for each 
succeeding one by discarding, divorcing, or 
beheading her predecessor. There were six 
of them in all, and, with one exception, the 
history of each one is a distinct and separate, 
but dreadful tragedy. As there were so many 
of them, and they figured as queens each for 
so short a period, they are commonly desig- 
nated in history by their personal family 
names, and even in these names there is a 
great similarity. There were three Cather- 
ines, two Annes, and a Jane. The only one 
who lived and died in peace, respected and 
beloved to the end, was the Jane. 

Queen Elizabeth, the subject of this nar- 
rative, was the daughter of the second wife in 
this strange succession, and her mother was 
one of the Annes. Her name in full was Anne 



l6 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Boleyn. She was young and very beautiful, 
and Henry, to prepare the way for making 
her his wife, divorced his first queen, or rather 
declared his marriage with her null and void, 
because she had been, before he married her, 
the wife of his brother. Her name was Cath- 
erine of Aragon. She was, while connected 
with him, a faithful, true, and affectionate 
wife. She was a Catholic. The Catholic rules 
are very strict in respect to the marriage of 
relatives, and a special dispensation from the 
pope was necessary to authorize marriage in 
such a case as that of Henry and Catherine. 
This dispensation had, however, been ob- 
tained, and Catherine had, in reliance upon it, 
consented to become Henry's wife. When, 
however, she was no longer young and beau- 
tiful, and Henry had become enamored of 
Anne Boleyn, who was so, he discarded Cath- 
erine, and espoused the beautiful girl in her 
stead. He wished the pope to annul his dis- 
pensation, which would, of course, annul the 
marriage ; and because the pontiff refused, and 
all the efforts of Henry's government were 
unavailing to move him, he abandoned the 
Catholic faith, and established an independent 
Protestant church in England, whose supreme 
authority would annul the marriage. Thus, 



Elizabeth's mother. 17 

in a great measure, came the Reformation in 
England. The Catholics reproach us, and, it 
must be confessed, with some justice, with the 
ignominiousness of its origin. 

The course which things thus took created 
a great deal of delay in the formal annulling 
of the marriage with Catherine, which 
Henry was too impatient and imperious 
to bear. He would not wait for the de 
cree of divotce, but took Anne Boleyn 
for Tiis wife before his' previous ' con- 
nection was made void. He said he was pri- 
vately v ma-rried to her. This he had, as he 
maintained, a right to do, for he considered 
his first marriage as void, absolutely and of 
itself, without any decree. When, at length, 
the decree was finally passed, he brought Anne 
Boleyn forward as his queen, and introduced 
her as such to England and to the world by a 
genuine marriage and a most magnificent cor- 
ronation. The people of England pitied poor 
Catharine, but they joined very cordially, not- 
withstanding, in welcoming the youthful and 
beautiful lady who was to take her place. All 
London gave itself up to festivities and re- 
joicings on the occasion of these nuptials. 
Immediately after this the young queen re- 
tired to her palace in Greenwich, and in two 



ig QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

or three months afterward little Elizabeth was 
born. Her birth-day was the 7th of Septem- 
ber, 1533. 

The mother may have loved the babe, but 
Henry himself was sadly disappointed that 
his child was not a son. Notwithstanding her 
sex, however, she was a personage of great 
distinction from her very birth, as all the 
realm looked upon her as heir to the crown. 
Henry was himself, at this time, very fond of 
Anne Boleyn, though his feelings afterward 
were entirely changed. He determined on 
giving to the infant a very splendid christen- 
ing. The usage in the Church of England is 
to make the christening of a child not merely 
a solemn religious ceremony, but a great fes- 
tive occasion of congratulations and rejoicing. 
The unconscious subject of the ceremony is 
taken to the church. Certain near and dis- 
tinguished friends, gentlemen and ladies, ap- 
pear as godfathers and godmothers, as they 
are termed, to the child. They, in the cere- 
mony, are considered as presenting the in- 
fant for consecration to Christ, and as becom- 
ing responsible for its future initiation into 
the Christian faith. They are hence some- 
times called sponsors. These spor 
supposed to take, from the time of 




Private Marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn. 



Elizabeth's mother. 19 

tism forward, a strong interest in all that per- 
tains to the welfare of their little charge, and 
they usually manifest this interest by presents 
on the day of the christening. These things 
are all conducted with considerable ceremony 
and parade in ordinary cases, occurring in 
private life ; and when a princess is to be bap- 
tized, all, even the most minute details of the 
ceremony, assume a great importance, and the 
whole scene becomes one of great pomp and 
splendor. 

The babe, in this case, was conveyed to the 
church in a grand procession. The mayci 
and other civic authorities in London came 
down to Greenwich in barges, tastefully orna- 
mented, to join in the ceremony. The lords 
and ladies of King Henry's court were also 
there, in attendance at the palace. When all 
were assembled, and everything was ready,, the 
procession moved from the palace to the 
church with great pomp. The road, all the 
way, was carpeted with green rushes, spread 
upon the ground. Over this road the little 
infant was borne by one of her godmothers. 
She was wrapped in a mantle of purple velvet, 
with a long train appended to it, which was 
trimmed with ermine, a very costly kind of 
fur, used in England as a badge of authority. 



20 - QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

This train was borne by lords and ladies of 
high rank, who were appointed for the pur- 
pose by the king, and who deemed their office 
a very distinguished honor. Besides these 
train-bearers, there were four lords, who 
walked two on each side of the child, and who 
held over her a magnificent canopy. Other 
personages of high rank and station followed, 
bearing various insignia and emblems, such 
as by the ancient customs of England are 
employed on these occasions, and all dressed 
sumptuously in gorgeous robes, and wearing 
the badges and decorations pertaining to their 
rank or the offices they held. Vast crowds of 
spectators lined the way, and gazed upon the 
scene. 

On arriving at the church, they found the 
interior splendidly decorated for the occasion. 
Its walls were lined throughout with tapestry, 
and in the center was a crimson canopy, un- 
der which was placed a large silver font, con- 
taining the water with which the child was to 
be baptized. The ceremony was performed 
by Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, 
which is the office of the highest dignitary of 
the English Church. After it was performed, 
the procession returned as it came, only now 
there was an addition of four persons of high 




Elizabeth, face p. 20 

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. 



ELIZABETHS MOTHER. 21 

rank, who followed the child with the presents 
intended for her by the godfathers and god- 
mothers. These presents consisted of cups 
and bowls, of beautiful workmanship, some 
of silver gilt, and some of solid gold. They 
were very costly, though not prized much yet 
by the unconscious infant for whom they were 
intended. She went and came, in the midst 
of this gay and joyous procession, little imag- 
ining into what a restless and unsatisfying 
life all this pageantry and splendor were 
ushering her. 

They named the child Elizabeth, from her 
grandmother. There have been many queens 
of that name, but Queen Elizabeth of Eng- 
land became so much more distinguished than 
any other, that that name alone has become 
her usual designation. Her family name was 
Tudor. As she was never married — for, 
though her life was one perpetual scene of 
matrimonial schemes and negotiations, she 
lived and died a maiden lady — she has been 
sometimes called the Virgin Queen, and one 
of the states of this Union, Virginia, receives 
its name from this designation of Elizabeth. 
She is also often familiarly called Queen 
Bess. 

Making little Elizabeth presents of gold 



22 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

and silver plate, and arranging splendid pa- 
geants for her, were not the only plans for her 
aggrandizement which were formed during 
the period of her infantile unconsciousness. 
The king, her father, first had an act of Parlia- 
ment passed, solemnly recognizing and con- 
firming her claim as heir to the crown, and 
the title of Princess of Wales was formally 
conferred upon her. When these things were 
done, Henry began to consider how he could 
best promote his own political schemes by 
forming an engagement of marriage for her, 
and when she was only about two years of age, 
he offered her to the King of France as the 
future wife of one of his sons, on certain con- 
ditions of political service which he wished 
him to perform. But the King of France 
would not accede to the terms, and so this 
plan was abandoned. Elizabeth was, how- 
ever, notwithstanding this failure, an object 
of universal interest and attention as the 
daughter of a very powerful monarch, and the 
heir to his crown. Her life opened with very 
bright and serene prospects of future great- 
ness ; but all these prospects were soon appar- 
ently cut off by a very heavy cloud which 
arose to darken her sky. This cloud was the 



ELIZABETH S MOTHER. 23 

sudden and dreadful fall and ruin of her 
mother. 

Queen Anne Boleyn was originally a maid 
of honor to Queen Catharine, and became ac- 
quainted with King Henry and gained his af- 
fections while she was acting in that capacity. 
When she became queen herself, she had, of 
course, her own maids of honor, and among 
them was one named Jane Seymour. Jane 
was a beautiful and accomplished lady, and in 
the end she supplanted her mistress and queen 
in Henry's affections, just as Anne herself had 
supplanted Catharine. The king had re- 
moved Catharine to make way for Anne, by 
annulling his marriage with her on account 
of their relationship : what way could he con- 
trive now to remove Anne, so as to make way 
for Jane ? 

He began to entertain, or to pretend to 
entertain, feelings of jealousy and suspicion 
that Anne was unfaithful to him. One day, 
at a sort of tournament in the park of the 
royal palace at Greenwich, when a great 
crowd of gaily dressed ladies and gentlemen 
were assembled to witness the spectacle, the 
queen dropped her handkerchief. A gentle- 
man whom the king had suspected of being 
one of her favorites picked it up. He did not 



24 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

immediately restore it to her. There was, 
besides, something in the air and manner of 
the gentleman, and in the attendant circum- 
stances of the case, which the king's mind 
seized upon as evidence of criminal gallantry 
between the parties. He was, or at least pre- 
tended to be, in a great rage. He left the field 
immediately and went to London. The 
tournament was broken up in confusion, the 
queen was seized by the king's orders, con- 
veyed to her palace in Greenwich, and shut up 
in her chamber, with a lady who had always 
been her rival and enemy to guard her. She 
was in great consternation and sorrow, but 
she declared most solemnly that she was in- 
nocent of any crime, and had always been true 
and faithful to the king. 

The next day she was taken from her pal- 
ace at Greenwich up the river, probably in a 
barge well guarded by armed men, to the 
Tower of London. The Tower is an ancient 
and very extensive castle, consisting of a great 
number of buildings inclosed within a high 
wall. It is in the lower part of London, on 
the bank of the Thames, with a flight of stairs 
leading down to the river from a great pos- 
tern gate. The unhappy queen was landed at 




Elizabeth, face p. ZU 



The Arrest of Anne Boleyn. 



ELIZABETH S MOTHER. 25 

these stairs and conveyed into the castle, and 
shut up in a gloomy apartment, with walls of 
stone and windows barricaded with strong 
bars of iron. There were four or five gentle- 
men, attendants upon the queen in her palace 
at Greenwich, whom the king suspected, or 
pretended to suspect, of being her accompli- 
ces in crime,, that were arrested at the same 
time with her and closely confined. 

When the poor queen was introduced into 
her dungeon, she fell on her knees, and, in 
an agony of terror and despair, she implored 
God to help her in this hour of her extremity, 
and most solemnly called him to witness that 
she was innocent of the crime imputed to her 
charge. Seeking thus a refuge in God calmed 
and composed her in some small degree; but 
when, again, thoughts of the imperious and 
implacable temper of her husband came over 
her, of the impetuousness of his passions, of 
the certainty that he wished her removed out 
of the way in order that room might be made 
for her rival, and then, when her distracted 
mind turned to the forlorn and helpless con- 
dition of her little daughter Elizabeth, now 
scarcely three years old, her fortitude and self- 
possession forsook her entirely ; she sank haif 
insane upon her bed, in long and uncontroll- 
able paroxisms of sobs and tears, alternating 



2,6 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

with still more uncontrollable and frightful 
bursts of hysterical laughter. 

The king sent a commission to take her ex- 
amination. At the same time, he urged her 
by the persons whom he sent, to confess her 
guilt, promising her that, if she did so, her 
life should be spared. She, however, pro- 
tested her innocence with the utmost firmness 
and constancy. She begged earnestly to be 
allowed to see the king, and, when this was 
refused, she wrote a letter to him, which still 
remains, and which expresses very strongly 
the acuteness of her mental sufferings. 

In this letter, she said that she was so dis- 
tressed and bewildered by the king's displeas- 
ure and her imprisonment, that she hardly 
knew what to think or to say. She assured 
hiim that she had always been faithful and true 
to him, and begged that he would not cast an 
indelible stain upon her own fair fame and 
that of her innocent and helpless child by such 
unjust and groundless imputations. She beg- 
ged him to let her have a fair trial by impartial 
persons, who would weigh the evidence 
against her in a just and equitable manner. 
She was sure that by this course her inno- 
cence would be established, and he himself, 




Elizabeth, face p. 26 



King Henry VIII. of England. 



Elizabeth's mother. 2? 

and all mankind, would see that she had been 
most unjustly accused. 

But if, on the other hand, she added, the 
king had determined on her destruction in or- 
der to remove an obstacle in the way of his 
possession of a new object of love, she prayed 
that God would forgive him and all her en- 
emies for so great a sin, and not call him to ac- 
count for it at the last day. She urged him, 
at all events, to spare the lives of the four 
gentlemen who had been accused, as she as- 
sured him they were wholly innocent of the 
crime laid to their charge, begging him, if he 
had ever loved the name of Anne Boleyn, to 
grant this her last 'request. She signed her 
letter his "most loyal and ever faithful wife," 
and dated it from her "doleful prison in the 
Tower." 

The four gentlemen were promised that 
their lives should be spared if they would con- 
fess their guilt. One of them did, accord- 
ingly, admit his guilt, and the others persisted 
to the end in firmly denying it. They who 
think Anne Boleyn was innocent, suppose that 
the one who confessed did it as the most likely 
mode of averting destruction, as men have 
often been known, under the influence of fear, 
to confess crimes of which it was afterward 



28 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

proved they could not have been guilty. If 
this was his motive, it was of no avail. The 
four persons accused, after a very informal 
trial, in which nothing was really proved 
against them, were condemned, apparently to 
please the king, and were executed together. 

Three days after this the queen herself was 
brought to trial before the peers. The num- 
ber of peers of the realm in England at this 
time was fifty-three. Only twenty-six were 
present at the trial. The king is charged with 
making such arrangements as to prevent the 
attendance of those who would be unwilling 
to pass sentence of condemnation. At any 
rate those who did attend professed to be 
satisfied of the guilt of the accused, and they 
sentenced her to be burned, or to be beheaded, 
at the pleasure of the king. He decided that 
she should be beheaded. 

The execution was to take place in a little 
green area within the Tower. The platform 
was erected here, and the block placed upon 
it, the whole being covered with a black cloth, 
as usual on such occasions. On the morning 
of the fatal day, Anne sent for the constable of 
the Tower to come in and receive her dying 
protestations that she was innocent of the 
crimes alleged against her. She told him that 



Elizabeth's mother. 29 

she understood that she was not to die until 
12 o'clock, and that she was sorry for it, for 
she wished to have it over. The constable 
told her the pain would be very slight and 
momentary. "Yes," she rejoined, "I am told 
that a very skillful executioner is provided, 
and my neck is very slender." 

At the appointed hour she was led out into 
the court-yard where the execution was to 
take place. There were about twenty persons 
present, all officers of state or of the city of 
London. The bodily suffering attendant up- 
on the execution was very soon over, for the 
slender neck was severed at a single blow, 
and probably all sensibility to pain immediate- 
ly ceased. Still, the lips and the eyes were ob- 
served to move and quiver for a few seconds 
after the separation of the head from the body. 
It was a relief, however, to the spectators 
when this strange and unnatural prolongation 
of the mysterious functions of life came to an 
end. 

No coffin had been provided. They found, 
however, an old wooden chest, made to con- 
tain arrows, lying in one of the apartments 
of the tower, which they used instead. They 
first laid the decapitated trunk within it, and 
then adjusted the dissevered head to its place, 

3— Elizabeth 



30 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

as if vainly attempting to repair the irretriev- 
able injury they had done. They hurried the 
body, thus enshrined, to its burial in a chapel, 
which was also within the tower, doing all 
with such dispatch that the whole was finished 
before the clock struck twelve; and the next 
day the unfeeling monster who was the author 
of this dreadful deed was publicly married to 
his new favorite, Jane Seymour. 

The king had not merely procured Anne's 
personal condemnation; he had also obtained 
a decree annulling his marriage with her, on 
the ground of her having been, as he attempt- 
ed to prove, previously affianced to another 
man. This was, obviously, a mere pretense. 
The object was to cut off Elizabeth's rights to 
inherit the crown, by making his marriage 
with her mother void. Thus was the little 
princess left motherless and friendless when 
only three years old. 









CHAPTER II. 



THE CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 

Elizabeth was about three years old at 
the death of her mother. She was a princess, 
but she was left in a very forlorn and desolate 
condition. She was not, however, entirely 
abandoned. Her claims to inherit the crown 
had been set aside, but then she was, as all 
admitted, the daughter of the king, and she 
must, of course, be the object of a certain de- 
gree of consideration and ceremony. It would 
be entirely inconsistent with the notions of 
royal dignity which then prevailed to have 
her treated like an ordinary child. 

She had a residence assigned her at a place 
called Hunsdon, and was put under the 
charge of a governess whose name was Lady 
Bryan. There is an ancient letter from Lady 
Bryan, still extant, which was written to one of 
the king's officers about Elizabeth, explaining 
her destitute condition, and asking for a more 
suitable supply for her wants-. It may en- 
tertain the reader to see this relic, which not 

31 



32 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

only illustrates our little heroine's condition, 
but also shows how great the changes arc 
which our language has undergone within the 
last three hundred years. The letter, as here 
given, is abridged a little from the original : 

My Lord: 

When your Lordship was last here, it pleased you 
to say that I should not be mistrustful of the Kings 
Grace, nor of your Lordship, which word was of 
great comfort to me, and emboldeth me now to 
speak my poor mind. 

Now so it is, my Lord, that my Lady Elizabeth is 
put from the degree she was afore, and what degree 
she is at now* I know not but by hearsay. There- 
fore I know not how to order her, nor myself, nor 
none of hers that I have the rule of — that is, her 
women and her grooms. But I beseech you to be 
good, my Lord, to her and to all hers, and to let 
her have some rayment; for she has neither gown, 
nor kirtle, nor no manner of linen, nor foreemocks, 
nor kerchiefs, nor sleeves, nor rails, nor bodystitchets, 
nor mufflers, nor biggins. All these her Grace's 
wants I have driven off as long as I can, by my 
troth, but I can not any longer. Beseeching you, 
my Lord, that you will see that her Grace may have 
that is needful for her, and that I may know from 
you, in writing, how I shall order myself towards 
her, and whatever is the King's Grace's pleasure ?nd 
yours, in every thing, that I shall do. 

My Lord Air. Shelton would have my Lady Eliza- 
beth to dine and sup at the board of estate. Alas, 
my Lord, it is not meet for a child of her age to keep 

*That is, in what light the king and the govern- 
ment wish to have her regarded, and how they wish 
her to be treated. 



CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 33 

such rule yet. I promise you, my Lord, I dare 
not take upon me to keep her in health and she 
keep that rule ; for there she shall see divers meats, 
and fruits, and wines, which would be hard for me 
to restrain her Grace from it. You know, my Lord, 
there is no place of correction* there, and she is 
yet too young to correct greatly. I know well, and 
she be there, I shall never bring her up to the King's 
Grace's honor nor hers, nor to her health, nor my 
poor honesty. Wherefore, I beseech you, my Lord, 
that my Lady have a mess of meat to her own lodg- 
ing, with a good dish or two that is meet for her 
Grace to eat of. 

My Lady hath likewise great pain with her teeth, 
and they come very slowly forth, and this causeth 
me to suffer her Grace to have her will more than 
I would. I trust to God, and her teeth were well 
graft, to have her Grace after another fashion than 
she is yet, so as I trust the Kings Grace shall have 
great comfort in her Grace; for she is as toward a 
child, and as gentle of conditions, as ever I knew 
any in my life. Jesu preserve her Grace. 

Good my Lord, have my Lady's Grace, and us 
that be her poor servants, in your remembrance. 

This letter evinces that strange mixture of 
state and splendor with discomfort and des- 
titution, which prevailed very extensively in 
royal households in those early times. A part 
of the privation which Elizabeth seems, from 
this letter, to have endured, was doubtless ow- 
ing to the rough manners of the day; but 
there is no doubt but that she was also, at 
least for a time, in a neglected and forsaken 

*That is, opportunity for correction. 



34 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

condition. The new queen, Jane Seymour, 
who succeeded Elizabeth's mother, had a son 
a year or two after her marriage. He was 
named Edward. Thus Henry had three child- 
ren, Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward, each one 
the child of a different wife; and the last of 
them, the son, appears to have monopolized, 
for a time, the king's affection and care. 

Still, the hostility which the king had felt 
for these queens in succession was owing, as 
has been already said, to his desire to remove 
them out of his way, that he might be at liber- 
ty to marry again ; and so, after the mothers 
were, one after another, removed, the hostility 
itself, so far as the children were concerned, 
gradually subsided, and the king began to 
look both upon Mary and Elizabeth with 
favor again. He even formed plans for 
marrying Elizabeth to persons of distinction 
in foreign countries, and he entered into some 
negotiations for this purpose. He had a decree 
passed, too, at last, reversing the sentence by 
which the two princesses were cut off from an 
inheritance of the crown. Thus they were 
restored, during their father's life, to their 
proper rank as royal princesses. 

At last the king died in 1547, leaving only 
these three children, each one the child of a 



CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 35 

different wife. Mary was a maiden lady, of 
about thirty-one years of age. She was a 
stern, austere, hard-hearted woman, whom no- 
body loved. She was the daughter of King 
Henry's first wife, Catharine of Aragon, and, 
like her mother, was a decided Catholic. 

Next came Elizabeth, who was about four- 
teen years of age. She was the daughter of 
the king's second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn. 
She had been educated a Protestant. She was 
not pretty, but was a very lively and sprightly 
child, altogether different in her cast of char- 
acter and in her manners from her sister Mary. 

Then, iastly, there was Edward, the son of 
Jane Seymour, the third queen. He was about 
nine years of age at his father's death. He 
was a boy of good character, mild and gentle 
in his disposition, fond of study and reflection, 
and a genera! favorite with all who knew him. 

It was considered in those days that a king 
might in some sense, dispose of his crown by 
will, just as, at the present time, a man may 
bequeath his house or his farm. Of course 
there were some limits to this power ; and the 
concurrence of Parliament seems to have been 
required to the complete validity of such a 
settlement. King Henry the Eighth,, how- 
ever, had little difficulty in carrying any law 



36 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

through Parliament which he desired to have 
enacted. It is said that, on one occasion, 
when there was some delay about passing a 
bill of his, he sent for one of the most influen- 
tial of the members of the House of Commons 
to come into his presence. The member came 
and kneeled before him. "Ho, man 1" said the 
king, "and will they not suffer my bill to 
pass?'' He then came up and put his hand 
upon the kneeling legislator's head, and added, 
"Get my bill passed to-morrow, or else by to- 
morrow this head of yours shall be off." The 
next day the bill was passed accordingly. 

King Henry, before he died, arranged the 
order of succession to the throne as follows: 
Edward was to succeed him; but, as he was a 
minor, 'being then only nine years of age, a 
great council of state, consisting of sixteen 
persons of the highest rank, was appointed to 
govern the kingdom in his name until he 
should be eighteen years of age, when he was 
to become king in reality as well as in name. 
In case he should die without heirs, then 
Mary, his oldest sister, was to succeed him ; 
and if she died without heirs, then Elizabeth 
was to succeed her. This arrangement went 
into full effect. The council governed the 
kingdom in Edward's name until he was six- 



CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. tf 

teen years of age, when he died. Then Mary 
followed, and reigned as queen five years long- 
er, and died without children, and during all 
this time Elizabeth held the rank of a princess, 
exposed to a thousand difficulties and dangers 
from plots, intrigues, and conspiracies of those 
about her, in which, on account of her peculiar 
position and prospects, she was necessarily 
involved. 

One of the worst of these cases occurred 
soon after her father's death. There were 
two brothers of Jane Seymour, who were high 
in King Henry's favor at the time of his de- 
cease. The oldest is known in history by his 
title of the Earl of Hertford at first, and after- 
ward by that of Duke of Somerset. The 
youngest was called Sir Thomas Seymour. 
They were both made members of the govern- 
ment which was to administer the affairs of 
state during young Edward's minority. They 
were not, however, satisfied with any moder- 
ate degree of power. Being brothers of Jane 
Seymour, who was Edward's mother,, they 
were his uncles, of course, and the oldest one 
soon succeeded in causing himself to be ap- 
pointed protector. By this office he was, in 
fact, king, all except in name. 

The younger brother, who was an agreeable 



38 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

and accomplished man, paid his addresses to 
the queen dowager, that is, to the widow 
whom King Henry left, for the last of his 
wives was living at the time of his death. She 
consented to marry him, and the marriage 
took place almost immediately after the king's 
death — so soon, in fact, that it was considered 
extremely hasty and unbecoming. This queen 
dowager had two houses left to her, one at 
Chelsea, and the other at Hanworth, towns 
some little distance up the river from London. 
Here she resided with her new husband, some- 
times at one of the houses, and sometimes 
at the other. The king had also directed, in 
his will, that the Princess Elizabeth should be 
under care, so that Elizabeth, immediately 
after her father's death, lived at one or the 
other of these two houses under the care of 
Seymour, who, from having been her uncle, 
became now, in some sense, her father. He 
was a sort of uncle, for he was the 
brother of one of her father's wives. He 
was a sort of father, for he was the husband 
of another of them. Yet, really, by blood, 
there was no relation between them. 

The two brothers, Somerset and Seymour, 
quarreled. Each was very ambitious, and very 
jealous of the other. Somerset, in addition to 



CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 39 

being appointed protector by the council, got 
a grant of power from the young king called 
a patent. This commission was executed 
with great formality, and was sealed with the 
great seal of state, and it made Somerset 
in some measure independent of the other 
nobles whom King Henry had associated with 
him in the government. By this patent he was 
placed in supreme command of all the forces 
by land and sea. He had a seat on the right 
hand of the throne, under the great canopy of 
state, and whenever he went abroad on public 
occasions, he assumed all the pomp and pa- 
rade which would have been expected in a real 
king. Young Edward was wholly under his 
influence, and did always whatever Somerset 
recommended him to do. Seymour was very 
jealous of all this greatness, and was contriv- 
ing every means in his power to circumvent 
and supersede his brother. 

The wives, too, of these great statesmen 
quarreled. The Duchess of Somerset thought 
she was entitled to the precedence, because she 
was the wife of the protector, who, being a 
kind of regent, she thought he was entitled to 
have his wife considered as a sort of queen. 
The wife of Seymour, on the other hand, con- 
tended that she was entitled to the precedence 



40 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

as a real queen, having been herself the act- 
ual consort of a reigning monarch. The two 
ladies disputed perpetually on this point, 
which, of course, could never be settled. They 
enlisted, however, on their respective sides 
various partisans, producing a great deal of 
jealousy and ill will, and increasing the ani- 
mosity of their husbands. 

All this time the celebrated Mary Queen of 
Scots was an infant in Janet Sinclair's arms, 
at the castle of Stirling, in Scotland. King 
Henry, during his life, had made a treaty 
with the government of Scotland, by which 
it was agreed that Mary should be married to 
his son Edward as soon as the two children 
should have grown to maturity; but after- 
ward, the government of Scotland having fall- 
en from Protestant into Catholic hands, they 
determined that this match must be given up. 
The English authorities were very much 
incensed. They wished to have the mar- 
riage take effect, as it would end in 
uniting the Scotch and English king- 
doms; and the protector, when a time ar- 
rived which he thought was favorable for 
his purpose, raised an army and marched 
northward to make war upon Scotland, and 



CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 41 

compel the Scots to fulfill the contract of mar- 
riage. 

While his brother was gone to the north- 
ward, Seymour remained at home and en- 
deavored, by every means within his reach, to 
strengthen his own influence and increase his 
power. He contrived to obtain from the coun- 
cil of government the office of lord high ad- 
miral, which gave him the command of the 
fleet, and made him, next to his brother, the 
most powerful and important personage in 
the realm. He had, besides, as has already 
been stated, the custody and care of Elizabeth, 
who lived in his house ; though, as he was a 
profligate and unprincipled man, this position 
for the princess, now fast growing up to wo- 
manhood, was considered by many persons 
as a doubtful propriety. Still, she was at 
present only fourteen years old. There was 
another young lady likewise in his family, a 
niece of King Henry, and, of course, a second 
cousin of Elizabeth. Her name was Jane^ 
Grey. It was a very unhappy family. The 
manners and habits of all the members of it, 
excepting Jane Grey, seem to have been very 
rude and irregular. The admiral quarreled with 
his wife, and was jealous of the very servants 
who waited upon her. The queen observed 



42 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

something in the manners of her husband to- 
ward the young princess which made her an- 
gry both with him and her. Elizabeth resented 
this, and a violent quarrel ensued, which end- 
ed in their separation. Elizabeth went away, 
and resided afterward at a place called Hat- 
field. 

Very soon after this, the queen dowager 
died suddenly. People accused Seymour, her 
husband, of having poisoned her, in order to 
make way for the Princess Elizabeth to be his 
wife. He denied this, but he immediately be- 
gan to lay his plans for securing the hand of 
Elizabeth. There was a probability that she 
might, at some future time, succeed to the 
crown, and then, if he were her husband, he 
thought he should be the real sovereign, reign- 
ing in her name. 

Elizabeth had in her household two persons, 
a certain Mrs. Ashley, who was then her gov- 
erness, and a man named Parry, who was a 
j sort of treasurer. He was called the cofferer. 
iThe admiral gained these persons over to his 
interests, and, through them, attempted to 
open communications with Elizabeth, and 
persuade her to enter into his designs. Of 
course the whole affair was managed with 
great secrecy. They were all liable to a charge 



CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 43 

of treason against the government of Edward 
by such plots, as his ministers and counselors 
might maintain that their design was to over- 
throw Edward's government and make Eliz- 
abeth queen. They, therefore, were all banded 
together to keep their counsels secret, and 
Elizabeth was drawn, in some degree, into the 
scheme, though precisely how far was never 
fully known. It was supposed that she began 
to love Seymour, although he was very much 
older than herself, and to be willing to become 
his wife. It is not surprising that, neglected 
and forsaken as she had been, she should have 
been inclined to regard with favor an agreeable 
and influential man, who expressed a strong 
affection for her, and a warm interest in her 
welfare. 

However this may be, Elizabeth was one 
day struck with consternation at hearing that 
Seymour was arrested by order of his brother, 
who had returned from Scotland and had re- 
ceived information of his designs, and that he 
had been committed to the Tower. He had 
a hurried and irregular trial, or what, in those 
days, was called a trial. The council 
went themselves to the Tower, and had him 
brought before them and examined. He de- 
manded to have the charges made out in form, 



44 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

and the witnesses confronted with him, but the 
council were satisfied of his guilt without 
these formalities. The Parliament immedi- 
ately afterward passed a bill of attainder 
against him, by which he was sentenced to 
death. His brother, the protector, signed the 
warrant for his execution, and he was be- 
headed on Tower Hill. 

The protector sent two messengers in the 
course of this affair to Elizabeth, to see what 
they could ascertain from her about it. Sir 
Robert Tyrwhitt was the name of the princi- 
pal one of these messengers. When the coff- 
erer learned that they were at the gate, he 
went in great terror into his chamber, and 
said that he was undone. At the same time, 
he pulled off a chain from his neck, and the 
rings from his fingers, and threw them away 
from him with gesticulations of despair. The 
messengers then came to Elizabeth, and told 
her, falsely as it seems, with a view to frighten 
her into confessions, that Mrs. Ashley and the 
cofferer were both secured and sent to the 
Tower. She seemed very much alarmed; she 
wept bitterly, and it was a long time before 
she regained her composure. She wanted to 
know whether they had confessed any thing. 
The protector's messengers would not tell her 



CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 45 

this, but they urged her to confess herself all 
that had occurred ; for, whatever it was, they 
said that the evil and shame would all be as- 
cribed to the other persons concerned, and 
not to her, on account of her youth and inex- 
perience. But Elizabeth would confess noth- 
ing. The messengers went away, convinced, 
as they said, that she was guilty; they could 
see that in her countenance; and that her si- 
lence was owing to her firm determination not 
to betray her lover. They sent word to the 
protector that they did not believe that any 
body would succeed in drawing the least in- 
formation from her, unless it was the protect- 
or, or young King Edward himself. 

These mysterious circumstances produced a 
somewhat unfavorable impression in regard to 
Elizabeth, and there were some instances, it 
was said, of light and trifling behavior between 
Elizabeth and Seymour, while she was in his 
house during the life-time of his wife. They 
took place in the presence of Seymour's wife, 
and seem of no consequence, except to show 
that dukes and princesses got into frolics some- 
times in those days as well as other mortals. 
People censured Mrs. Ashley for not enjoin- 
ing a greater dignity and propriety of demean- 

4— Elizabeth 



46 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

or in her young charge, and the government 
removed her from her place. 

Lady Tyrwhitt who was the wife of the 
messenger referred to above that was sent to 
examine Elizabeth, was appointed to succeed 
Mrs. Ashley. Elizabeth was very much dis- 
pleased at this change. She told Lady Tyr- 
whitt that Mrs. Ashley was her mistress, and 
tha f she had not done any thing to make it 
necessary for the council to put more mis- 
tresses over her. Sir Robert wrote to the pro- 
tector that she took the affair so heavily that 
she "wept all night, and lowered all the next 
day." He said that her attachment to Mrs. 
Ashley was very strong; and that, if any thing 
were said against the lord admiral, she could 
not bear to heat it, but took up his defense in 
the most prompt and eager manner. 

How far it is true that Elizabeth loved the 
unfortunate Seymour can now never be 
known. There is no doubt, however, but that 
this whole affair was a very severe trial and af- 
fliction to her. It came upon her when she 
was but fourteen or fifteen years of age, and 
when she was in a position, as well of an age, 
which renders the heart acutely sensitive both 
to the effect of kindness and of injuries. Sey- 
mour, by his death, was lost to her forever, 



CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 47 

and Elizabeth lived in great retirement and se- 
clusion during the remainder of her brother's 
reign She did not, however, forget Mrs. Ash- 




Window in Anne Boleyn'a room. 

ky and Parr> On hei accession to the throne, 
man) years afterward, she gave them offices 
ver> valuable, considering their station in life, 
and wa? a true friend to them both to the end 
of their days, 




CHAPTER III. 



LADY JANE GREY. 



Among Elizabeth's companions and play- 
mates in her early years was a young lady, 
her cousin, as she was often called, though 
she was really the daughter of her cousin, 
named Jane Grey, commonly called in history 
Lady Jane Grey. Her mother was the March- 
ioness of Dorset, and was the daughter of one 
of King Henry the Eighth's sisters. King Hen- 
ry had named her as the next in the order of 
succession after his own children, that is, after 
Edward his son, and Mary and Elizabeth his 
two daughters ; and, consequently, though she 
was very young, yet, as she might one day be 
Queen of England, she was a personage of 
considerable importance. She was, accord- 
ingly, kept near the court, and shared, in some 
respects, the education and the studies of the 
two princesses. 

Lady Jane was about four years younger 
than the Princess Elizabeth, and the sweetness 
of her disposition, united with an extraordin- 
ary intellectual superiority, which showed it- 
48 



LADY JANE GREY. 49 

self at a very early period, made her a univer- 
sal favorite. Her father and mother, the Mar- 
quis and Marchioness of Dorset, lived at an 
estate they possessed, called Broadgate, in 
Leicestershire, which is in the central part of 
England, although they took their title from 
the county of Dorset, which is on the south- 
western coast. They were very proud of their 
daughter, and attached infinite importance to 
her descent from Henry VII., and to the pos- 
sibility that she might one day succeed to the 
English throne. They were very strict and se- 
vere in their manners, and paid great atten- 
tion to etiquette and punctilio, as persons who 
are ambitious of rising in the world are very 
apt to do. In all ages of the worlds and among 
all nations, those who have long been accus- 
tomed to a high position are easy and uncon- 
strained in their manners and demeanor, while 
those who have been newly advanced from a 
lower station, or who are anticipating or as- 
piring to such an advance, make themselves 
slaves to the rules of etiquette and ceremony. 
It was thus that the father and mother of Lady 
Jane, anticipating that she might one day be- 
come a queen, watched and guarded her in- 
cessantly, subjected her to a thousand un- 
welcome restraints, and repressed all the spon- 



50 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

taneous and natural gayety and sprightliness 
which belongs properly to such a child. 

She became, however, a very excellent schol- 
ar in consequence of this state of things. She 
had a private teacher, a man of great emin- 
ence for his learning and abilities, and yet of 
a very kind and gentle spirit, which enabled 
him to gain a strong hold on his pupil's affec- 
tion and regard. His name was John Aylmer. 
The Marquis of Dorset, Lady Jane's father, 
became acquainted with Mr. Aylmer when he 
was quite young, and appointed him, when he 
had finished his education, to come and reside 
in his family as chaplain and tutor to his child- 
ren. Aylmer afterward became a distinguished 
man, was made Bishop of London, and held 
many high offices of state under Queen Eliza- 
beth, when she came to reign. He became 
very much attached to Queen Elizabeth in the 
middle and latter part of his life, as he had 
been to Lady Jane in the early part of it. A 
curious incident occurred during the time that 
he was in the service of Elizabeth, which illus- 
trates the character of the man. The queen 
was suffering from the toothache, and it was 
necessary that the tooth should be extracted. 
The surgeon was ready with his instruments, 
and several ladies and gentlemen of the royal 




Elizabeth, face p. 50 



Lady Jane Grey. 



LADY JANE GREY. 5 1 

household were in the queen's room commis- 
erating her sufferings ; but the queen dreaded 
the operation so excessively that she could not 
summon fortitude enough to submit to it. 
Aylmer, after trying some time in vain to en- 
courage her, took his seat in the chair instead 
of her, and said to the surgeon, "I am an old 
man, and have but few teeth to lose ; but come, 
draw this one, and let her majesty see how 
light a matter it is." One would not have sup- 
posed that Elizabeth would have allowed this 
to be done; but she did; and, finding that 
Aylmer made so light of the operation, she 
submitted to have it performed upon herself. 
But to return to Lady Jane. She was very 
strongly attached to her teacher, and made 
great progress in the studies which he ar- 
ranged for her. Ladies of high rank, in those 
days, were accustomed to devote great at- 
tention to the ancient and modern lan- 
guages. There was, in fact, a great 
necessity then, as indeed, there is now, 
for a European princess to be acquainted 
with the principal languages of Europe; 
for the various royal families ,were con- 
tinually intermarrying with each other, 
which led to a great many visits, and other in- 
tercourse between the different courts. There 



52 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

was also a great deal of intercourse with the 
pope, in Which the Latin language was the 
medium of communication. Lady Jane de- 
voted a great deal of time to all these studies, 
and made rapid proficiency in them all. 

The Princess Elizabeth was also an excel- 
lent scholar. Her teacher was a very learned 
and celebrated man, named Roger Ascham. 
She spoke French and Italian as fluently as 
she did English. She also wrote and spoke 
Latin with correctness and readiness. She 
made considerable progress in Greek too. She 
could write the Greek character very beauti- 
fully, and could express herself tolerably well 
in conversation in that language. One of her 
companions, a young lady of the name of Ce- 
cil, is said to have spoken Greek as well as 
English. Roger Ascham took great interest 
in advancing the princess in these studies, and 
in the course of these his instructions he be- 
came acquainted with Lady Jane, and he 
praises very highly, in his letters, the industry 
and assiduity of Lady Jane in similar pursuits. 

One day Roger Ascham, being on a journey 
from the north of England to London, stopped 
to make a call at the mansion of the Marquis 
of Dorset. He found that the family were all 
away ; they had gone off upon a hunting ex- 



LADY JANE GREY. 53 

cursion in the park. Lady Jane, however, 
had been left at home, and Ascham went in to 
see her. He found her in the library reading 
Greek. Ascham examined her a little, and was 
very much surprised to find how well ac- 
quainted with the language she had become, 
although she was then only about fifteen years 
old. He told her that he should like very much 
to have her write him a letter in Greek, and this 
she readily promised to do. He asked her, 
also, how it happened that, at her age, she had 
made such advances in learning. "1 will tell 
you," said she, "how it has happened. One of 
the greatest benefits that God ever conferred 
upon me was in giving me so sharp and severe 
parents and so gentle a teacher; for, when I 
am in the presence of either my father or 
mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, 
stand, or go ; eat, drink, be merry, or sad ; be 
sewing, playing, dancing, or doing any thing 
else, I must do it, as it were, in just such 
weight, measure, and number, as perfectly as 
possible, or else I am so sharply taunted, so 
cruelly threatened, yea, presently, sometimes 
with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways, 
which I will not name for the honor I bear 
my parents, that I am continually teased and 
tormented. And then, when the time comes 



54 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

for me to go to Mr. Elsmer, he teaches me so 
gently, so pleasantly, and with such fair al- 
lurements to learning, that I think all the time 
nothing while I am with him ; and I am al- 
ways sorry to go away from him, because 
whatsoever else I do but learning is full of 
grief, trouble, fear and suffering. 

Lady Jane Grey was an intimate friend and 
companion of the young King Edward as long 
as he lived. Edward died when he was six- 
teen years of age, so that he did not reach the 
period which his father had assigned for his 
reigning in his own name. One of King Ed- 
ward's most prominent and powerful minis- 
ters during the latter part of his life was the 
Earl of Northumberland. The original name 
of the Earl of Northumberland was John 
Dudley. He was one of the train who came in 
the procession at the close of the baptism of 
Elizabeth, carrying the presents. He was a 
Protestant, and was very friendly to Edward 
and to Lady Jane Grey, for they were Protest- 
ants too. But his feelings and policy were 
hostile to Mary, for she was a Catholic. Mary 
was sometimes treated very harshly by him, 
and she was subjected to many privations and 
hardships on account of her religious faith. 
The government of Edward justified these 



LADY JANE GREY. 55 

measures, on account of the necessity of pro- 
moting the Reformation, and discouraging 
popery by every means in their power. North- 
umberland supposed, too, that it was safe to 
do this, for Edward being very young, it was 
probable that he would live and reign a long 
time. It is true that Mary was named, in her 
father's will, as his successor, if she outlived 
him, but then it was highly probable that she 
would not outlive him, for she was several 
years older than he. 

All these calculations, however, were spoiled 
by the sudden failure of Edward's health 
when he was sixteen years old. Northumber- 
land was much alarmed at this. He knew at 
once that if Edward should die, and Mary suc- 
ceed him, all his power would be gone, and he 
determined to make desperate efforts to pre- 
vent such a result. 

It must not be understood, however, that 
in coming to this resolution, Northumberland 
considered himself as intending and planning 
a deliberate usurpation of power. There was 
a real uncertainty in respect to the question 
who was the true and rightful heir to the 
crown. Northumberland was, undoubtedly, 
strongly biased by his interest, but he may 
have been unconscious of the bias, and in ad- 



56 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

vocating the mode of succession on which the 
continuance of his own power depended, he 
may have really believed that he was only 
maintaining what was in itself rightful and 
just. 

In fact, there is no mode which human in- 
genuity has ever yet devised for determining 
the hands in which the supreme executive of a 
nation shall be lodged, which will always 
avoid doubt and contention. If this power de- 
volves by hereditary descent, no rules can be 
made so minute .and full as that cases will not 
sometimes occur that will transcend them. If, 
on the other hand, the plan of election be 
adopted, there will often be technical doubts 
about a portion of the votes, and cases will 
sometimes occur where the result will depend 
upon this doubtful portion. Thus there will 
be disputes under any system, and ambitious 
men will seize such occasions to struggle for 
power. 

In order that our readers may clearly un- 
derstand the nature of the plan which North- 
umberland adopted, we present, on the follow- 
ing page, a sort of genealogical table of the 
royal family of England in the days of Eliza- 
beth. 



LADY JANE GREY. 



57 



> 5 Q 

« N K 

£ w 5 

2 2 W 

Hi Ul ,, 

m a ^ 

D D £ 

* «A ro 









3#V*- 



- « r v <a » « 
U U ^ is^ C 



. 2 
gll 



G Q 



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58 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

By examination of this table, it will be 
seen that King Henry VII. left a son and two 
daughters. The son was King Henry VIII., 
and he had three children. His third child 
was King Edward VI., who was now about to 
die. The other two were the Princesses Mary 
and Elizabeth, who would naturally be consid- 
ered the next heirs after Edward ; and besides, 
King Henry had left a will, as has been al- 
ready explained, confirming their rights to the 
succession. This will he had made near the 
time of his death; but it will be recollected 
that, during his lifetime, both the marriages 
from which these princesses had sprung had 
been formally annulled. His marriage with 
Catharine of Aragon had been annulled on one 
plea, and that of Anne Boleyn on another. 
Both these decrees of annulment had afterward 
been revoked, and the right of the princesses 
to succeed had been restored, or attempted to 
be restored, by the will. Still, it admitted of 
a question, after all, whether Mary and Eliza- 
beth were to be considered as the children of 
true and lawful wives or not. 

If they were not, then Lady Jane Grey was 
the next heir, for she was placed next to the 
princesses by King Henry the Eighth's will. 
This will, for some reason or other, set aside 



LADY JANE GREY. 59 

all the descendants of Margaret, who went to 
Scotland as the wife of James IV. of that coun- 
try. What right the king had thus to disin- 
herit the children of his sister Margaret was a 
great question. Among her descendants was 
Mary Queen of Scots, as will be seen by the 
table, and she was, at this time, the represen- 
tative of that branch of the family. The friends 
of Mary Queen of Scots claimed that she was 
the lawful heir to the English throne after Ed- 
ward. They maintained that the marriage of 
Catharine, the Princess Mary's .mother, and 
also that of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, 
had both been annulled, and that the will 
could not restore them. They maintained, 
also, that the will was equally powerless in set- 
ting aside the claims of Margaret, her grand- 
mother. Mary Queen of Scots, though silent 
now, advanced her claim subsequently, and 
made Elizabeth a great deal of trouble. 

Then there was, besides these, a third party, 
who maintained that King Henry the Eighth's 
will was not effectual in legalizing again the 
annulled marriages, but that it was sufficient to 
set aside the claims of Margaret. Of course, 
with them, Lady Jane Grey, who, as will be 
seen by the table, was the representative of the 
second sister of Henry VIII., was the only 

5— Elizabeth 



60 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

heir. The Earl of Northumberland embraced 
this view. His motive was to raise Lady Jane 
Grey to the throne, in order to exclude the 
Princess Mary, whose accession he knew verv 
well would bring all his greatness to a very 
sudden end. 

The Earl of Northumberland was at this 
time the principal minister of the young king. 
The protector Somerset had fallen long ago. 
Northumberland, whose name was then John 
Dudley, had supplanted him, and had acquired 
so great influence and power at court that al- 
most every thing seemed to be at his disposal. 
He was, however, generally hated by the other 
courtiers and by the nation. Men who gain 
the confidence of a young or feeble-minded 
prince, so as to wield a. great power not prop- 
erly their own, are always almost odious. It 
was expected, however, that his career would 
be soon brought to an end, as all knew that 
King Edward must die, and it was generally 
understood that Mary was to succeed him. 

Northumberland, however, was very anx- 
ious to devise some scheme to continue his 
power, and in revolving the subject in his 
mind, he conceived of plans which seemed to 
promise not only to continue, but also greatly 
to increase it. His scheme was to have the 



LADY JANE GREY. 6l 

princesses' claims set aside, and Lady Jane 
Grey raised to the throne. He had several 
sons. One of them was young, handsome, 
and accomplished. He thought of proposing 
him to Lady Jane's father as the hus- 
band of Lady Jane, and, to induce the mar- 
quis to consent to this plan, he promised to 
obtain a dukedom for him by means of his 
influence with the king. The marquis agreed 
to the proposal. Lady Jane did not object to 
the husband they offered her. The dukedom 
was obtained, and the marriage, together with 
two others which Northumberland had arrang- 
ed to strengthen his influence, were celebrated, 
all on the same day, with great festivities and 
rejoicings. The people looked on moodily, 
jealous and displeased, though they had no 
open ground of displeasure, except that it was 
unsuitable to have such scenes of gayety and 
rejoicing among the high officers of the court 
while the young monarch himself was lying 
upon his dying bed. They did not yet know 
that it was Northumberland's plan to raise his 
new daughter-in-law to the throne. 

Northumberland thought it would greatly 
increase his prospect of success if he could ob- 
tain some act of acknowledgment of Lady 
Jane's claims to the crown before Edward 



62 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

died. An opportunity soon occurred for ef- 
fecting this purpose. One day, as he was sit- 
ting by young Edward's bedside, he turned 
the conversation to the subject of the Refor- 
mation, which had made great progress during 
Edward's reign, and he led Edward on in the 
conversation, until he remarked that it was a 
great pity to have the work all undone by 
Mary's accession, for she was a Catholic, and 
would, of course, endeavor to bring the coun- 
try back again under the spiritual dominion 
of Rome. Northumberland then told him 
that there was one way, and one way only, to 
avert such a calamity, and that was to make 
Lady Jane his heir instead of Mary. 

King Edward was a very thoughtful, con- 
siderate, and conscientious boy, and was very 
desirous of doing what he considered his 
duty. He thought it was his duty to do all in 
his power to sustain the Reformation, and to 
prevent the Catholic power from gaining as- 
cendancy in England again. He was, there- 
fore, easily persuaded to accede to Northum- 
berland's plan, especially as he was himself 
strongly attached to Lady Jane, who had often 
been his playmate and companion. 

The king accordingly sent for three judges 
of the realm, and directed them to draw up a 



LADY JANE GREY. 63 

deed of assignment, by which the crown was 
to be conveyed to Lady Jane on the young 
king's death, Mary and Elizabeth being alike 
excluded. The judges were afraid to do this ; 
for, by King Henry the Eighth's settlement of 
the crown, all those persons who should do 
any thing to disturb the succession as he ar- 
ranged it were declared to be guilty of high 
treason. The judges knew very well, there- 
fore, that if they should do what the king re- 
quired of them, and then, if the friends of 
Lady Jane should fail of establishing her upon 
the throne, the end of the affair would be the 
cutting off of their own heads in the Tower. 
They represented this to the king, and begged 
to be excused from the duty that he required of 
them. Northumberland was in a great rage 
at this, and seemed almost ready to break o it 
against the judges in open violence. They, 
however, persisted in their refusal to do what 
they well knew would subject them to the 
pains and penalties of treason. 

Northumberland, rinding that threats and 
violence would not succeed, contrived another 
mode of obviating the difficulty. He proposed 
to protect the judges from any possible evil 
consequences of their act by a formal pardon 
for it, signed by the king, and sealed with the 



64 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

great seal, so that, in case they were ever 
charged with treason, the pardon would save 
them from punishment. This plan succeeded. 
The pardon was made out, being written with 
great formality upon a parchment roll, and 
sealed with the great seal. The judges' then 
prepared and signed the deed of settlement by 
which the crown was given to Lady Jane, 
though, after all, they did it with much reluc- 
tance and many forebodings. 

Northumberland next wanted to contrive 
some plan for getting the princesses into his 
power, in order to prevent their heading any 
movement in behalf of their own claims at the 
death of the king. He was also desirous of 
making such arrangements as to conceal the 
death of the king for a few days after it should 
take place, in order that he might get Lady 
Jane and her officers in complete possession of 
the kingdom before the demise of the crown 
should be generally known. For this purpose 
he dismissed the regular physicians who had 
attended upon the king, and put him under 
the charge of a woman, who pretended that 
she had a medicine that would certainly cure 
him. He sent, also, messengers to the prin- 
cesses, who were then in the country north of 
London, requesting that they would come to 



LADY JANE GREY. 65 

Greenwich, to be near the sick chamber where 
their brother was lying, that they might cheer 
and comfort him in his sickness and pain. 

The princesses obeyed the summons. They 
each sat out immediately on the journey, and 
moved toward London on their way to Green- 
wich. In the meantime, Edward was rapidly 
declining. The change in the treatment which 
took place when his physicians left him, made 
him worse instead of better. His cough in- 
creased, his breathing became more labored 
and difficult ; in a word, his case presented all 
the symptoms of approaching dissolution. At 
length he died. Northumberland attempted 
to keep the fact concealed until after the prin- 
cesses should arrive, that he might get them 
into his power. Some faithful friend, how- 
ever, made all haste to meet them, in order to' 
inform them what was going on. In this way 
Mary received intelligence of her brother's 
death when she had almost reached London, 
and was informed, also, of the plans of North- 
umberland for raising Lady Jane to the 
throne. The two princesses were extremely 
alarmed, and both turned back at once toward 
the northward again. Mary stopped to write 
a letter to the council, remonstrating against 
their delay in proclaiming her queen, and then 



66 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

proceeded rapidly to a strong castle at a place 
called Framlingham, in the county of Suffolk, 
on the eastern coast of England. She made 
this her head-quarters, because she supposed 
that the people of that county were particu- 
larly friendly to her ; and then, besides, it was 
near the sea, and, in case the course of events 
should turn against her, she could make her 
escape to foreign lands. It is true that the 
prospect of being a fugitive and an exile was 
very dark and gloomy, but it was not so terri- 
ble as the idea of being shut up a prisoner in 
the Tower, or being beheaded on a block for 
treason. 

In the meantime, Northumberland went, at 
the head of a troop of his adherents, to the 
residence of Lady Jane Grey, informed her of 
the death of Edward, and announced to her 
their determination to proclaim her queen. 
Lady Jane was very much astonished at this 
news. At first she absolutely refused the of- 
fered honor; but the solicitations and urgency 
of Northumberland, and of her father and her 
young husband, at length prevailed. She was 
conducted to London, and installed in at least 
the semblance of power. 

As the news of these transactions spread 
throughout the land, a universal and strong 



LADY JANE GREY. 6? 

excitement was produced, everybody at once 
taking sides either for Mary or Lady Jane. 
Bands of armed men began to assemble. It 
soon became apparent, however, that, beyond 
the immediate precincts of London, the 
country was* almost unanimous for Mary. 
They dreaded, it is true, the danger which 
they anticipated from her Catholic faith, but 
still they had all considered it a settled point, 
since the death of Henry the Eighth, that 
Mary was to reign whenever Edward should 
die; and this general expectation that she 
would be queen had passed insensibly into an 
opinion that she ought to be. Considered 
strictly as a legal question, it was certainly 
doubtful Which of the four claimants to the 
throne had the strongest title; but the public 
were not disposed so to regard it. They chose, 
on the whole, that Mary should reign. Large 
military masses consequently flocked to her 
standard. Elizabeth took sides with her, and, 
as it was important to give as much public ef- 
fect to her adhesion as possible, they furnish- 
ed Elizabeth with a troop of a thousand horse- 
men, at the head of which slie rode to meet 
Mary and tender her aid. 

Northumberland went forth at the head of 
such forces as he could collect, but he soon 



68 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

found that the attempt was vain. His troops 
forsook him. The castles which had at first 
been under his command surrendered them- 
selves to Mary. The Tower of London went 
over to her side. Finally, all being lost, 
Northumberland himself was taken prisoner, 
and all his influential friends with him, and 
were committed to the Tower. Lady Jane 
herself too, together with her husband and 
father, were seized and sent to prison. 

Northumberland was immediately put upon 
his trial for treason. He was condemned, and 
brought at once to the block. In fact, the 
whole affair moved very promptly and rapidly 
on, from its commencement to its consumma- 
tion. Edward the Sixth died on the 5th of 
July, and it was only the 22d of August when 
Northumberland was beheaded. The period 
for which the unhappy Lady Jane enjoyed the 
honor of being called a queen was nine days. 

It was about a month after this that Mary 
passed from the Tower through the city of 
London in a grand triumphal procession to be 
crowned. The royal chariot, covered with 
cloth of golden tissue, was drawn by six 
horses most splendidly caparisoned. Eliza- 
beth, who had aided her sister, so far as she 
could, in the struggle, was admitted to share 



LADY JANE GREY. 



6 9 



the triumph. She had a carriage drawn by 
six horses too, with cloth and decorations of 
silver. They proceeded in this manner, at- 




Queen Mary Watching the Execution of Lady Jane Grey, 
tended and followed by a great cavalcade of 
nobles and soldiery, to Westminster Abbey, 
where Mary took her seat with great formal- 
ity upon her father's throne. 




CHAPTER IV. 

THE SPANISH MATCH. 

When Queen Mary ascended the throne 
s l he was a maiden lady not far from thirty-five 
years of age. She was cold, austere, and for- 
bidding in her appearance and manners, 
though probably conscientious and honest in 
her convictions of duty. She was a very firm 
and decided Catholic, or, rather, she evinced 
a certain strict adherence to the principles of 
her religious faith, which we generally call 
firmness when it is exhibited by those whose 
opinions agree with our own, though we are 
very apt to name it bigotry in those who differ 
from us. 

For instance, when the body of young Ed- 
ward, her brother, after his death, was to be 
deposited in the last home of the English 
kings in Westminster Abbey, which is a 
very magnificent cathedral a little way up the 
river from London, the services were, of 
course, conducted according to the ritual of 
the English Churcn, which was then Protes- 

ant. Mary, however, could not conscientious- 
70 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 71 

ly countenance such services even by being 
present at them. She accordingly assembled 
her immediate attendants and personal friends 
in her own private chapel, and celebrated the 
interment there, with Catholic priests, by a 
service conformed to the Catholic ritual. Was 
it a bigoted, or only a firm and proper, at- 
tachment to her own faith, which forbade her 
joining in the national commemoration? 
The reader must decide ; but, in deciding, he 
is bound to render the same verdict that he 
would have given if it had been a case of a 
Protestant withdrawing thus from Catholic 
forms. 

At all events, whether bigoted or not, Mary 
was doubtless sincere; but she was so cold, 
and stern, and austere in her character, that 
she was very little likely to be loved. There 
were a great many persons who wished to be- 
come her husband, but their motives were to 
share her grandeur and power. Among these 
persons, the most prominent one, and the one 
apparently most likely to succeed, was a 
prince of Spain. His name was Philip. 

It was his father's plan, and not his own, 
that he should marry Queen Mary. His father 
was at this time the most wealthy and power- 
ful monarch in Europe. His name was 



72 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Charles. He is commonly called in history 
Charles V. of Spain. He was not only King 
of Spain, but Emperor of Germany. He re- 
sided sometimes at Madrid, and sometimes at 
Brussels in Flanders. His son Philip had been 
married to a Portuguese princess, but his 
wife had died, and thus Philip was a widower. 
Still, he was only twenty-seven years of age, 
but he was as stern, severe, and repulsive in 
his manners as Mary. His personal appear- 
ance, too, corresponded with his character. 
He was a very decided Catholic also, and in 
his natural spirit, haughty, ambitious, and 
domineering. 

The Emperor Charles, as soon as he heard 
of young Edward's death and of Mary's ac- 
cession to the English throne, conceived the 
plan of proposing to her his son Philip for a 
husband. He sent over a wise and sagacious 
statesman from his court to make the proposi- 
tion, and to urge it by such reasons as would 
be most likely to influence Mary's mind, and 
the minds of the great officers of her govern- 
ment. The embassador managed the affair 
well. In fact, it was probably easy to manage 
it. Mary would naturally be pleased with the 
idea of such a young husband, who, besides 
being young and accomplished, was the son 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 73 

of the greatest potentate in Europe, and likely 
one day to take his father's place on that 
lofty elevation. Besides, Mary Queen of 
Scots, who had rival claims to Queen Mary's 
throne, had married, or was about to marry, 
the son of the King of France, and there was 
a little glory in outshining her, by having for 
a husband a son of the King of Spain. It 
might, however, perhaps, be a question which 
was the greatest match ; for, though the court 
of Paris was the most brilliant, Spain, being 
at that time possessed of the gold and silver 
mines of its American colonies, was at least 
the richest country in the world. 

Mary's ministers, when they found that 
Mary herself liked the plan, fell in with it too. 
Mary had been beginning, very quietly in- 
deed, but very efficiently, her measures for 
bringing back the English government and 
nation to the Catholic faith. Her ministers 
told her now, however, that if she wished to 
succeed in effecting this match, she must sus- 
pend all these plans until the match was con- 
summated. The people of England were gen- 
erally of the Protestant faith. They had been 
very uneasy and restless under the progress 
which the queen had been making in silencing 
Protestant preachers, and bringing back Ca- 



74 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

tholic rites and ceremonies; and now, if they 
found that their queen was going to marry 
so rigid and uncompromising a Catholic as 
Philip of Spain, they would be doubly alarmed. 
She must suspend, therefore, for a time, 
her measures for restoring papacy, unless she 
was willing to give up her husband. The 
queen saw that this was the alternative, and 
she decided on following her ministers' ad- 
vice. She did all in her power to quiet and 
calm the public mind, in order to prepare the 
way for announcing the proposed connection. 
Rumors, however, began to be spread 
abroad that such a design was entertained be- 
fore Mary was fully prepared to promulgate 
it. These rumors produced great excitement, 
and awakened strong opposition. The people 
knew Philip's ambitious and overbearing 
character, and they believed that if he were 
to come to England as the husband of the 
queen, the whole government would pass into 
his hands, and, as he would naturally be very 
much under the influence of his father, the 
connection was likely to result in making 
England a mere appendage to the already vast 
dominions of the emperor. The House of 
Commons appointed a committee of twenty 
members, and sent them to the queen, with a 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 75 

humble petition that she would not marry a 
foreigner. The queen was much displeased 
at receiving such a petition, and she dissolved 
the Parliament. Ihe members dispersed, car- 
rying with them every where expressions of 
their dissatisfaction and fear. England, they 
said, was about to become a province of 
Spain, and the prospect of such a consumma- 
tion, wherever the tidings went, filled the 
people of the country with great alarm. 

Queen Mary's principal minister of state at 
this time was a crafty politician, whose name 
was Gardiner. Gardiner sent word to the 
emperor that there was great opposition to 
his son's marriage in England, and that he 
feared that he should not be able to accom- 
plish it, unless the terms of the contract of 
marriage were made very favorable to the 
queen and to England, and unless the emper- 
or could furnish him with a large sum of 
money to use as a means of bringing influen- 
tial persons of the realm to favor it. Charles 
decided to send the money. He borrowed 
it of some of the rich cities of Germany, 
making his son Philip give his bond to repay 
it as soon as he should get possession of his 
bride, and of the rich and powerful country 
over which she reigned. The amount thus 



j6 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

remitted to England is said by the historians 
of those days to have been a sum equal to 
two millions of dollars. The bribery was cer- 
tainly on a very respectable scale. 

The emperor also sent a very magnificent 
embassy to London, with a distinguished no- 
bleman at its head, to arrange the terms and 
contracts of the marriage. This embassy came 
in great state, and, during their residence in 
London, were the objects of great attention 
and parade. The eclat of their reception, and 
the influence of the bribes, seemed to silence 
opposition to the scheme. Open opposition 
ceased to be expressed, though a strong and 
inveterate determination against the measure 
was secretly extending itself throughout the 
realm. This, however, did not prevent the 
negotiations from going on. The terms were 
probably all fully understood and agreed upon 
before the embassy came, so that nothing re- 
mained but the formalities of writing and 
signing the articles. 

Some of the principal stipulations of these 
articles were, that Philip was to have the title 
of King of England jointly with Mary's title 
of queen. Mary was also to share with him, 
in the same way, his titles in Spain. It was 
agreed that Mary should have the exclusive 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 77 

power of the appointment of officers of gov- 
ernment in England, and that no Spaniards 
should be eligible at all. Particular provisions 
were made in respect to the children which 
might result from the marriage, as to how 
they should inherit rights of government in 
the two countries. Philip had one son already, 
by his former wife. This son was to succeed 
his father in the kingdom of Spain, but the 
other dominions of Philip on the Continent 
were to descend to the offspring of this new 
marriage, in modes minutely specified to fit 
all possible cases which might occur. The 
making of all these specifications, however, 
turned out to be labor lost, as Mary never 
had children. 

It was also specially agreed that Philip 
should not bring Spanish or foreign do- 
mestics into the realm, to give uneasiness 
to the English people; that he would 
never take the queen out of England, 
nor carry any of the children away, 
without the consent of the English no- 
bility ; and that, if the queen were to die be- 
fore him, all his rights and claims of every 
sort, in respect to England, should forever 
cease. He also agreed that he would never 
carry away any of the jewels or other prop- 



yS QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

erty of the crown, nor suffer any other person 
to do so. 

These stipulations, guarding so carefully 
the rights of Mary and of England, were in- 
tended to satisfy the English people, and re- 
move their objections to the match. They 
produced some effect, but the hostility was too 
deeply seated to be so easily allayed. It grew, 
on the contrary, more and more threatening, 
until at length a conspiracy was formed by a 
number of influential and powerful men, and 
a plan of open rebellion organized. 

The leader in this plan was Sir Thomas 
Wyatt, and the outbreak which followed is 
known in history as Wyatt's rebellion. An- 
other of the leaders was the Duke of Suffolk, 
who, it will be recollected, was the father of 
Lady Jane Grey. This led people to suppose 
that the plan of the conspirators was not 
merely to prevent the consummation of the 
Spanish match, but to depose Queen Mary 
entirely, and to raise the Lady Jane to the 
throne. However this may be, an extensive 
and formidable conspiracy was formed. 
There were to have been several risings in dif- 
ferent parts of the kingdom. They all failed ex- 
cept the one which Wyatt himself was to head, 
which was in Kent, in the southeastern part of 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 79 

the country. This succeeded so far, at least, 
that a considerable force was collected, and 
began to advance toward London from the 
southern side. 

Queen Mary was very much alarmed. She 
had no armed force in readiness to encounter 
this danger. She sent messengers across the 
Thames and down the river to meet Wyatt, 
who was advancing at the head of four thous- 
and men, to ask what it was that he demand- 
ed. He replied that the queen must be deliv- 
ered up as his prisoner, and also the Tower of 
London be surrendered to him. This showed 
that his plan was to depose the queen. Mary 
rejected these proposals at once, and, having 
no forces to meet this new enemy, she had to 
retreat from Westminster into the city of Lon- 
don, and here she took refuge in the city hall, 
called the Guildhall, and put herself under 
the protection of the city authorities. Some 
of her friends urged her to take shelter in 
the Tower; but she had more confidence, she 
said, in the faithfulness and loyalty of her sub- 
jects than in castle walls. 

Wyatt continued to advance. He was still 
upon the south side of the river. There was 
but one bridge across the Thames, at London, 
in those days, though there are half a dozen 



80 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

now, and this one was so strongly barricaded 
and guarded that Wyatt did not dare to at- 
tempt to cross it. He went up the river, there- 
fore, to cross at a higher point; and this cir- 
cuit, and several accidental circumstances 
which occurred, detained him so Jong that a 
considerable force had been got together to 
receive him when he was ready to enter the 
city. He pushed boldly on into the narrow 
streets, which received him like a trap or a 
snare. The city troops hemmed up his way 
after he had entered. They barricaded the 
streets, they shut the gates, and armed men 
poured in to take possession of all the ave- 
nues. Wyatt depended upon finding the peo- 
ple of London on his side. They turned, in- 
stead, against him. All hope of success in 
his enterprise, and all possibility of escape 
from his own awful danger, disappeared to- 
gether. A herald came from the queen's offi- 
cer calling upon him to surrender himself 
quietly, and save the effusion of blood. He 
surrendered in an agony of terror and des- 
pair. 

The Duke of Suffolk learned these facts in 
another county, where he was endeavoring to 
raise a force to aid Wyatt. He immediately 
fled, and hid himself in the house of one of 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 8l 

his domestics. He was betrayed, however, 
seized, and sent to the Tower. Many other 
prominent actors in the insurrection were ar- 
rested, and the others fled in all directions, 
wherever they could find concealment or 
safety. 

Lady Jane's. life had been spared thus far, 
although she had been, in fact, guilty of 
treason against Mary by the former attempt 
to take the crown. She now, however, two 
days after the capture of Wyatt, received word 
that she must prepare to die. She was, of 
course, surprised and shocked at the sudden- 
ness of this announcement; but she soon re- 
gained her composure, and passed through 
the awful scenes preceding her death with a 
fortitude amounting to heroism. Her hus- 
band was to die too. He was beheaded first, 
and she saw the headless body, as it was 
brought back from the place of execution, be- 
fore her turn came. She acknowledged her 
guilt in having attempted to seize her cous- 
in's crown. As the attempt to seize this 
crown failed, mankind consider her techni- 
cally guilty. If it had succeeded, Mary, in- 
stead of Jane, would have been the traitor 
who would have died for attempting crimin- 
ally to usurp a throne. 



82 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

In the meantime Wyatt and Suffolk re- 
mained prisoners in the Tower. Suffolk was 
overwhelmed with remorse and sorrow at 
having been the means, by his selfish ambi- 
tion, of the cruel death of so innocent and 
lovely a child. He did not suffer this anguish 
long, however, for five days after his son and 
Lady Jane were executed, his head fell too 
from the block. Wyatt was reserved a little 
longer. 

He was more formally" tried, and in his ex- 
amination he asserted that the Princess Eliza- 
beth was involved in the conspiracy. Officers 
were immediately sent to arrest Elizabeth. 
She was taken to a royal palace at Westmin- 
ster, just above London, called Whitehall, and 
shut up there in close confinement, and no 
one was allowed to visit her or speak to her. 
The particulars of this imprisonment will be 
described more fully in the next chapter. 
Fifty or sixty common conspirators, not wor- 
thy of being beheaded with an ax, were 
hanged, and a company of six hundred more 
were brought, their hands tied, and halters 
about their necks, a miserable gang, into 
Mary's presence, before her palace, to be par- 
doned. Wyatt was then executed. When 
he came to die, however, he retracted what he 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 83 

had alleged of Elizabeth. He declared that she 
was entirely innocent of any participation in 
the scheme of rebellion. Elizabeth's friends 
believe that he accused her because he sup- 
posed that such a charge would be agreeable 
to Mary, and that he should himself be more 
leniently treated in consequence of it, but 
that when at last he found that sacrificing her 
would not save him, his guilty^ conscience 
scourged him into doing her justice in his 
last hours. 

All obstacles to the wedding were now ap- 
parently removed ; for, after the failure of 
Wyatt's rebellion, nobody dared to make any 
open opposition to the plans of the queen, 
though there was still abundance of secret 
dissatisfaction. Mary was now very impa- 
tient to have the marriage carried into effect. 
A new Parliament was called, and its con- 
currence in the plan obtained. Mary ordered 
a squadron of ships to be fitted out and sent 
to Spain, to convey the bridegroom to Eng- 
land. The admiral who had command of this 
fleet wrote to her that the sailors were so hos- 
tile to Philip that he did not think it was safe 
for her to intrust him to their hands. Mary 
then commanded this force to be dismissed, in 
order to arrange some other way to bring 



84 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Philip over. She was then full of anxiety 
and apprehension lest some accident might 
befall him. His ship might be wrecked, or he 
might fall into the hands of the French, who 
were not at all well disposed toward the 
match. Her thoughts and her conversation 
were running upon this topic all the time. She 
was restless by day and sleepless by night, un- 
til her health was at last seriously impaired, 
and her friends began really to fear that she 
might lose her reason. She was very anxious, 
too, lest Philip should find her beauty so im- 
paired by her years, and by the state of her 
health, that she should fail, when he arrived, 
of becoming the object of his love. 

In fact, she complained already that Philip 
neglected her. He did not write to her, or ex- 
press in any way the interest and affection 
which she thought ought to be awakened in 
his mind by a bride who, as she expressed it, 
was going to bring a kingdom for a dowry. 
This sort of cold and haughty demeanor was, 
however, in keeping with the self-importance 
and the pride which then often marked the 
Spanish character, and which, in Philip par- 
ticularly, always seemed to be extreme. 

At length the time arrived for his embarka- 
tion. He sailed across the Bay of Biscay, and 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 85 

up the English Channel until he reached 
Southampton, a famous port on the southern 
coast of England. There he landed with great 
pomp and parade. He assumed a very proud 
and stately bearing, which made a very unfav- 
orable impression upon the English people 
who had been sent by Queen Mary to receive 
him. He drew his sword when he landed, 
and walked about with it, for a time, in a very 
pompous manner, holding the sword un- 
sheathed in his hand, the crowd of by-stand- 
ers that had collected to witness the spectacle 
of the landing looking on all the time, and 
wondering what such an action could be in- 
tended to intimate. It was probably intended 
simply to make them wonder. The authori- 
ties of Southampton had arranged to come 
in procession to meet Philip, and present him 
with the keys of the gates, an emblem of an 
honorable reception into the city. Philip re- 
ceived the keys, but did not deign a word of 
reply. The distance and reserve which it had 
been customary to maintain between the 
English sovereigns and their people was al- 
ways pretty strongly marked, but Philip's 
loftiness and grandeur seemed to surpass all 
bounds. 

Mary went two-thirds of the way from Lon- 



86 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

don to the coast to meet the bridegroom. Here 
the marriage ceremony was performed, and 
the whole party came, with great parade and 
rejoicings, back to London, and Mary, satis- 
fied and happy, took up her abode with her 
new lord in Windsor Castle. 

The poor queen was, however, in the end, 
sadly disappointed in her husband. He felt 
no love for her ; he was probably, in fact, in- 
capable of love. He remained in England a 
year, and then, growing weary of his wife and 
of his adopted country, he went back to Spain 
again, greatly to Queen Mary's vexation and 
chagrin. They were both extremely disap- 
pointed in not having children. Philip's mo- 
tive for marrying Mary was ambition wholly, 
and not love ; and when he found that an heir 
to inherit the two kingdoms was not to be ex- 
pected, he treated his unhappy wife with great 
neglect and cruelty, and finally went away 
from her altogether. He came back again, it 
is true, <a year afterward, but it was only to 
compel Mary to join with him in a war 
against France. He told her that if she would 
not do this, he would go away from England 
and never see her again. Mary yielded ; but 
at length, harassed and worn down with use- 
less regrets and repinings, her mental suffer- 



THE SPANISH MATCH. 



87 



ings are supposed to have shortened her days. 
She died miserably a few years after her mar- 




Philip II. Leaving England, 
riage, and thus the Spanish match turned out 
to be a very unfortunate match indeed. 




CHAPTER V. 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. 

vThe imprisonment of Queen Elizabeth in 
the Tower, which was briefly alluded to in 
the last chapter, deserves a more full narration 
than was possible to give to it there. She had 
retired from court some time before the 
difficulties about the Spanish match arose. It 
is true that she took sides with Mary in the 
contest with Northumberland and the friends 
of Jane Grey, and she shared her royal sister's 
triumph in the pomp 'and parade of the cor- 
onation; but, after all, she and Mary could 
not possibly be very good friends. The mar- 
riages of their respective mothers could not 
both have been valid. Henry the Eighth was 
so impatient that he could not wait for a di- 
vorce from Catherine before he married Anne 
Boleyn. The only way to make the latter 
marriage legal, therefore, was to consider the 
former one null and void from the beginning; 
and if the former one was not thus null and 
void, the latter must be so. If Henry had 
waited for a divorce, then both marriages 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. 89 

might have been valid, each for the time of its 
own continuance, and both the princesses 
might have been lawful heirs; but as it was, 
neither of them could maintain her own 
claims to be considered a lawful daughter, 
without denying, by implication at least, 
those of the other. They were therefore, as it 
were, natural enemies. Though they mignt 
be outwardly civil to each other, it was not 
possible that there could be any true har- 
mony or friendship between them. 

A circumstance occurred, too, soon after 
Mary's accession to the throne, which result- 
ed in openly alienating the feelings of the two 
ladies from each other. There was a certain 
prisoner in the Tower of London, a gentleman 
of high rank and great consideration, named 
Courteney, now about twenty-six years of 
age, who had been imprisoned in the Tower 
by King Henry the Eighth when he was only 
twelve years old, on account of some political 
offenses of his father! He had thus been a 
close prisoner for fourteen years at Mary's 
accession; but Mary released him. It was 
found, when he returned to society again, that 
he had employed his solitary hours in culti- 
vating his mind, acquiring knowledge, and 
availing himself of all the opportunities for 



90 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

improvement which his situation afforded, 
and that he came forth an intelligent, accom- 
plished, and very agreeable man. The inter- 
est which his appearance and manners ex- 
cited was increased by the sympathy natural- 
ly felt for the sufferings that he had endured. 
In a word, he became a general favorite. The 
rank of his family was high enough for Mary 
to think of him for her husband, for this was 
before the Spanish match was thought of. 
Mary granted him a title, and large estates, 
and showed him many other favors, and, as 
every body supposed, tried very hard to make 
an impression on his heart. Her efforts were, 
however, vain. Courteney gave an obvious 
preference to Elizabeth, who was young then, 
at least, if not beautiful. This successful ri- 
valry on the part of her sister rilled the queen's 
heart with resentment and envy, and she ex- 
hibited her chagrin by so many little marks of 
neglect and incivility, that Elizabeth's resent- 
ment was roused in its turn, and she asked 
permission to retire from court to her resi- 
dence in the country. Mary readily gave the 
permission, and thus it happened that when 
Wyatt's rebellion first broke out, as described 
in the last chapter, Elizabeth was living in 
retirement and seclusion at Ashridge, an es- 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. 9I 

tate of hers at some distance west of London. 
As to Courteney, Mary found some pretext 
or other for sending him back again to his 
prison in the Tower. 

Mary was immediately afraid that the mal- 
contents would join with Elizabeth and at- 
tempt to put forward her name and her 
claims to the crown, which, if they were to do, 
it would make their movement very formida- 
ble. She was impressed immediately with the 
idea that it was of great importance to get 
Elizabeth back again into her power. The 
most probable way of succeeding in doing 
this, she thought, was to write her a kind and 
friendly letter, inviting her to return. She 
accordingly wrote such a letter. She said in 
it that certain evil-disposed persons were 
plotting some disturbances in the kingdom., 
and that she thought that Elizabeth was not 
safe where she was. She urged her, therefore, 
to return, saying that she should be truly wel- 
come, and should be protected against all dan- 
ger if she would come. 

An invitation from a queen is a command, 
and Elizabeth would have felt bound to obey 
this summons, but she was sick when it came. 
At least she was not well, and she was not 
much disposed to underrate her sickness for 



92 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

the sake of being able to travel on this occa- 
sion. The officers of the household made out 
a formal certificate to the effect that Elizabeth 
was not able to undertake such a journey. 

In the meantime Wyatt's rebellion broke 
out; he marched to London, was entrapped 
there and taken prisoner, as is related at 
length in the last chapter. In his confessions 
he implicated the Princess Elizabeth, and also 
Courteney, and Mary's government then de- 
termined that they must secure Elizabeth's 
person at all events, sick or well. They sent, 
therefore, three gentlemen as commissioners, 
with a troop of horse to attend them, to bring 
her to London. They carried the queen's 
litter with them, to bring the princess upon it 
in case she should be found unable to travel 
in any other way. 

This party arrived at Ashridge at ten 
o'clock at night. They insisted on being ad- 
mitted at once into the chamber of Elizabeth, 
and there they made known their errand. 
Elizabeth was terrified ; she begged not to be 
moved, as she was really too sick to go. They 
called in some physicians, who certified that 
she could be moved without danger to her 
life. The next morning they put her upon 
the litter, a sort of covered bed, formed like a 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. 93 

palanquin, and borne, like a palanquin, by 
men. It was twenty-nine miles to London, 
and it took the party four days to reach the 
city, they moved so slowly. This circum- 
stance is mentioned sometimes as showing 
how sick Elizabeth must have been. But the 
fact is, there was no reason whatever for any 
haste. Elizabeth was now completely in 
Mary's power, and it could make no possible 
difference how long she was upon the road. 

The litter passed along the roads in great 
state. It was a princess that they were bear- 
ing. As they approached London, a hundred 
men in handsome uniforms went before, and 
an equal number followed. A great many 
people came out from the city to meet the 
princess, as a token of respect. This dis- 
pleased Mary, but it could not well be pre- 
vented or punished. On their arrival they 
took Elizabeth to one of the palaces at West- 
minster, called Whitehall. She was examined 
by Mary's privy council. Nothing was prov- 
ed against her, and, as the rebellion seemed 
now wholly at an end, she was at length re- 
leased, and thus ended her first durance as a 
political prisoner. 

It happened, however, that other persons 
implicated in Wyatt's plot, when examined, 



94 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

made charges against Elizabeth in respect to 
it, and Queen Mary sent another force and 
arrested her again. She was taken now to a 
famous royal palace, called Hampton Court, 
which is situated on the Thames, a few miles 
above the city. She brought many of the 
officers of her household and of her personal 
attendants with her ; but one of the queen's 
ministers, accompanied by two other officers, 
came soon after, and dismissed all her own at- 
tendants, and placed persons in the service of 
the queen in their place. They also set a 
guard around the palace, and then left the 
princess, for the night, a close prisoner, and 
yet without any visible signs of coercion, for 
all these guards might be guards of honor. 

The next day some officers came again, and 
told her that it had been decided to send her 
to the Tower, and that a barge was ready at 
the river to convey her. She was very much 
agitated and alarmed, and begged to be al- 
lowed to send a letter to her sister before they 
took her away. One of the officers insisted 
that she should have the privilege, and the 
other that she should not. The former con- 
quered in the contest, and Elizabeth wrote the 
letter and sent it. It contained an earnest and 
solemn disavowal of all participation in the 




l\\\\\MMlmiiM:i;;:; u ,;l ,'. _ ' .. 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. 95 

plots which she had been charged with en- 
couraging, and begged Mary to believe that 
she was innocent, and allow her to be released. 
The letter did no good. Elizabeth was tak- 
en into the barge and conveyed in a very pri- 
vate manner down the river. Hampton Court 
is above London, several miles, and the Tow- 
er is just below the city. There are several 
entrances to this vast castle, some of them by 
stairs from the river. Among these is one by 
which prisoners accused of great political 
crimes were usually taken in, and which is 
called the Traitors' Gate. There was another 
entrance, also, from the river, by which a more 
honorable admission to the fortress might be 
attained. The Tower was not solely a prison. 
It was often a place of retreat for kings and 
queens from any sudden danger, and was fre- 
quently occupied by them as a somewhat per- 
manent residence. There were a great num- 
ber of structures within the walls, in some of 
which royal apartments were fitted up with 
great splendor. Elizabeth had often been in 
the Tower as a resident or a visitor, and thus 
far there was nothing in the circumstances of 
the case to forbid the supposition that they 
might be taking her there as a guest or resi- 
dent now. She was anxious and uneasy, it is 



96 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

true, but she was not certain that she was re- 
garded as a prisoner. 

In the mean time, the barge, with the other 
boats in attendance, passed down the river in 
the rain, for it was a stormy day, a circum- 
stance which aided the authorities in their 
effort to convey their captive to her gloomy 
prison without attracting the attention of the 
populace. Besides, it was the day of some 
great religious festival, when the people were 
generally in the churches. This day had been 
chosen on that very account. The barge and 
the boats came down the river, therefore, with- 
out attracting much attention ; they approach- 
ed the landing-place at last, and stopped at the 
flight of steps leading up from the water to 
the Traitors' Gate. 

Elizabeth declared that she was no traitor, 
and that she would not be landed there. The 
nobleman who had charge of her told her sim- 
ply, in reply, that she could not have her 
choice of a place to land. At the same time, 
he offered her his cloak to protect her from the 
rain in passing from the barge to the castle 
gate. Umbrellas had not been invented in 
those days. Elizabeth threw the cloak away 
from her in vexation and anger. She found, 
however, that it was of no use to resist. She 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. 97 

could not choose. She stepped from the 
barge out upon the stairs in the rain, saying, 
as she did so, "Here lands as true and faithful 
a subject as ever landed a prisoner at these 
stairs. Before thee, O God, I speak it, having 
now no friends but thee alone." 

A large company of the warders and keep- 
ers of the castle had been drawn up at the 
Traitors' Gate to receive her, as was custom- 
ary on occasions when prisoners of high rank 
were to enter the Tower. As these men were 
always dressed in uniform of a peculiar an- 
tique character, such a parade of them made 
quite an imposing appearance. Elizabeth 
asked what it meant. They told her that that 
was the customary mode of receiving a pris 
oner. She said that if it was, she hoped that 
they would dispense with the ceremony in her 
case, and asked that, for her sake, the men 
might be dismissed from such attendance in 
so inclement a season. The men blessed her 
for her goodness, and kneeled down and 
prayed that God would preserve her. 

She was extremely unwilling to go into the 
prison. As they approached the part of the 
edifice where she was to be confined, through 
the court-yard of the Tower, she stopped and 
sat down upon a stone, perhaps a step, or the 



98 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

curb stone of a walk. The lieutenant urged 
her to go in out of the cold and wet. "Better 
sitting here than in a worse place," she re- 
plied, ''for God knoweth whither you are 
bringing me." However, she rose and went 
on. She entered the prison, was conducted to 
her room, and the doors were locked and 
bolted upon her. 

Elizabeth was kept closely imprisoned for 
a month; after that, some little relaxation in 
the strictness of her seclusion was allowed. 
Permission was very reluctantly granted to 
her to walk every day in the royal apartments, 
which were now unoccupied, so that there 
was no society to be found there, but it afford- 
ed her a sort of pleasure to range through 
them for recreation and exercise. But this 
privilege could not be accorded without very 
strict limitations and conditions. Two officers 
of the Tower and three women had to attend 
her; the windows, too, were shut, and she 
was not permitted to go and look out at them. 
This was rather melancholy recreation, it 
must be allowed, but it was better than being 
shut up all day in a single apartment, bolted 
and barred. 

There was a small garden within the castle 
not far from the prison, and after some time 



4 

ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. 99 

Elizabeth was permitted to walk there. The 
gates and doors, however, were kept care- 
fully closed, and all the prisoners, whose 
rooms looked into it from the surrounding 
buildings, were closely watched by their re- 
spective keepers, while Elizabeth was in the 
garden, to prevent their having any communi- 
cation with her by looks or signs. There were 
a great many persons confined at this time, 
who had been arrested on charges connected 
with Wyatt's rebellion, and the authorities 
seem to have been very specially vigilant to 
prevent the possibility of Elizabeth's having 
communication with any of them. There was 
a little child of five years of age who used to 
come and visit Elizabeth in her room, and 
bring her flowers. He was the son of one of 
the subordinate officers of the Tower. It was, 
however, at last suspected that he was acting 
as a messenger between Elizabeth and Court- 
eney. Courteney, it will be recollected, had 
been sent by Mary back to the Tower again, 
so that he and Elizabeth were now suffering 
the same hard fate in neighboring cells. When 
the boy was suspected of bearing communica- 
tions between these friends and companions 
in suffering, he was called before an officer 
and closely examined. His answers were all 

Lore. 



100 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

open and childlike, and gave no confirmation 
to the idea which had been entertained. The 
child, however, was forbidden to go to Eliza- 
beth's apartment any more. He was very 
much grieved at this, and he watched for the 
next time that Elizabeth was to walk in the 
garden, and putting his mouth to a hole in 
the gate, he called out, "Lady, I can not bring 
you any more flowers." 

After Elizabeth had been thus confined 
about three months, she was one day terribly 
alarmed by the sounds of martial parade with- 
in the Tower, produced by the entrance of an 
officer from Queen Mary, named Sir Thomas 
Beddingfield, at the head of three hundred 
men. Elizabeth supposed that they were come 
to execute sentence of death upon her. She 
asked immediately if the platform on which 
Lady Jane Grey was beheaded had been taken 
away. They told her that it had been remov- 
ed. She was then somewhat relieved. They 
afterward told her that Sir Thomas had come 
to take her away from the Tower, but that it 
was not known where she was to go. This 
alarmed her again, and she sent for the con- 
stable of the Tower, whose name was Lord 
Chandos, and questioned him very closely to 
learn what they were going to do with her. 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. IOI 

He said that it had been decided to remove 
her from the Tower, and send her to a place 
called Woodstock, where she was to remain 
under Sir Thomas Beddingfield's custody, at a 
royal palace which was situated there. Wood- 
stock is forty or fifty miles to the westward of 
London, and not far from the city of Oxford. 
Elizabeth was very much alarmed at this 
intelligence. Her mind was filled with vague 
and uncertain fears and forebodings, which 
were none the less oppressive for being uncer- 
tain and vague. She had, however, no imme- 
diate cause for apprehension. Mary found 
that there was no decisive evidence against 
her, and did not dare to keep her a prisoner 
in the Tower too long. There was a large 
and influential part of the kingdom who were 
Protestants. They were jealous of the pro- 
gress Mary was making toward bringing the 
Catholic religion in again. They abhorred 
the Spanish match. They naturally looked to 
Elizabeth as their leader and head, and Mary 
thought that by too great or too long-continu- 
ed harshness in her treatment of Elizabeth, she 
would only exasperate them, and perhaps pro- 
voke a new outbreak against her authority. 
She determined, therefore, to remove the prin- 



102 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

cess from the Tower to some less odious place 
of confinement. 

She was taken first to Queen Mary's court, 
which was then held at Richmond, just above 
London; but she was surrounded here by sol- 
diers and guards, and confined almost as 
strictly as before. She was destined, however, 
here to another surprise. It was a proposi- 
tion of marriage. Mary had been arranging 
a plan for making her the wife of a certain 
personage styled the Duke of Savoy. His do- 
minions were on the confines of Switzerland 
and France, and Mary thought that if her ri- 
val were once married and removed there, all 
the troubles which she, Mary, had experienc- 
ed on her account would be ended forever. 
She thought, too, that her sister would be 
glad to accept this offer, which opened such 
an immediate escape from the embarrass- 
ments and sufferings of her situation in Eng- 
land. But Elizabeth was prompt, decided, 
and firm in the rejection of this plan. England 
was her home, and to be Queen of England 
the end and aim of all her wishes and plans. 
She had rather continue a captive for the pres- 
ent in her native land, than to live in splendor 
as the consort of a sovereign duke beyond the 
Rhone. 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. IO3 

Mary then ordered Sir Thomas Bedding- 
field to take her to Woodstock. She traveled 
on horseback, and was several days on the 
journey. Her passage through the country 
attracted great attention. The people assem- 
bled by the wayside, expressing their kind 
wishes, and offering her gifts. The bells were 
rung in the villages through which she passed. 
She arrived finally at Woodstock, and was 
shut up in the palace there. 

This was in July, and she remained in 
Woodstock more than a year, not, however, 
always very closely confined. At Christmas 
she was taken to court, and allowed to share 
in the festivities and rejoicings/ On this oc- 
casion — it was the first Christmas after the 
marriage of Mary and Philip — the great hall 
of the palace was illuminated with a thousand 
lamps. The princess sat at table next to 
the king and queen. She was on other occa- 
sions, too, taken away for a time, and then re- 
turned again to her seclusion at Woodstock. 
These changes, perhaps, only served to make 
her feel more than ever the hardships of her 
lot. They say that one day, as she sat at her 
window, she heard a milkmaid singing in the 
fields, in a blithe and merry strain, and said, 



104 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

with a sigh, that she wished she was a milk- 
maid too. 

King Philip, after his marriage, gradually 
interested himself in her behalf, and exerted 
his influence to have her released ; and Mary's 
ministers had frequent interviews with her, 
and endeavored to induce her to make some 
confession of guilt, and to petition Mary for 
release as a matter of mercy. They could not, 
they said, release her while she persisted in 
her innocence, without admitting that they 
and Mary had been in the wrong and had im- 
prisoned her unjustly. But the princess was 
immovable. She declared that she was per- 
fectly innocent, and that she would never, 
therefore, say that she was guilty. She would 
rather remain in prison for the truth, than be 
at liberty and have it believed that she had 
been guilty of disloyalty and treason. 

At length, one evening in May, Elizabeth 
received a summons to go to "the palace and 
visit Mary in her chamber. She was conduct- 
ed there by torch-light. She had a long inter- 
view with the queen, the conversation being 
partly in English and partly in Spanish. It 
was not very satisfactory on either side. Eliz- 
abeth persisted in asserting her innocence, but 
in other respects she spoke in a kind and con- 



ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER. 



I05 



ciliatory manner to the queen. The interview 
ended in a sort of reconciliation. Mary put a 
valuable ring upon Elizabeth's finger in tok- 
en of the renewal of friendship, and soon af- 




The Place of Execution in the Tower. 

terward the long period of restraint and con- 
finement was ended, and the princess returned 
to her own estate at Hatfield in Hertfordshire, 
where she lived some time in seclusion, devot- 
ing herself, in a great measure, to the study of 
Latin and Greek, under the instruction of 
Roger Ascham. 

8— Elizabeth 




CHAPTER VI. 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 



IF it were the story of Mary instead of that 
of Elizabeth that we were following, we 
should have now to pause and draw a very 
melancholy picture of the scenes which dark- 
ened the close o>f the queen's unfortunate and 
unhappy history. Mary loved her husband, 
but she could not secure his love in return. 
He treated her with supercilious coldness and 
neglect, and evinced, from time to time, a de- 
gree of interest in other ladies which awaken- 
ed her jealousy and anger. Of all the terrible 
convulsions to which the human soul is sub- 
ject, there is not one which agitates it more 
deeply than the tumult of feeling produced by 
the mingling of resentment and love. Such 
a mingling, or, rather, such a conflict, between 
passions apparently inconsistent with each 
other, is generally considered not possible by 
those who have never experienced it. But it is 
possible. It is possible to be stung with a 

sense of the ingratitude, and selfishness, and 
106 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 10? 

cruelty of an object, which, after all, the heart 
will persist in clinging to with the fondest af- 
fection. Vexation and anger, a burning sense 
of injury, and desire for revenge, on the one 
hand, and feelings of love, resistless and un- 
controllable, and bearing, in their turn, all be- 
fore them, alternately get possession of the 
soul, harrowing and devastating it in their aw- 
ful conflict, and even sometimes reigning over 
it, for a time, in a temporary but dreadful 
calm, like that of two wrestlers who pause a 
moment, exhausted in a mortal combat, but 
grappling each other with deadly energy all 
the time, while they are taking breath for a re- 
newal of the conflict. Queen Mary, in one of 
these paroxysms, seized a portrait of her hus- 
band and tore it into shreds. The reader, who 
has his or her experience in affairs of the 
heart yet to come, will say, perhaps, her love 
for him then must have been all gone. No ; 
it was at its height. We do not tear the por- 
traits of those who are indifferent to us. 

At the beginning of her reign, and, in fact, 
during all the previous periods of her life, 
Mary had been an honest and conscientious 
Catholic. She undoubtedly truly believed that 
the Christian Church ought to be banded to- 
gether in one great communion, with *he Pope 



I08 QUEEN ELIZABETH, 

of Rome as its spiritual head, and that her 
father had broken away from this communion 
— which was, in fact, strictly true — merely to 
obtain a pretext for getting released from her 
mother. How natural, under such circum- 
stances, that she should have desired to re- 
turn. She commenced, immediately on her 
accession, a course of measures to bring the 
nation back to the Roman Catholic commun- 
ion. She managed very prudently and cau- 
tiously at first — especially while the affair of 
her marriage was pending — seemingly very 
desirous of doing nothing to exasperate those 
who were of the Protestant faith, or even to 
awaken their opposition. After she was mar- 
ried, however, her desire to please her Cath- 
olic husband, and his widely-extended and in- 
fluential circle of Catholic friends on the Con- 
tinent, made her more eager to press forward 
the work of putting down the Reformation in 
England; and as her marriage was now ef- 
fected, she was less concerned about the con- 
sequences of any opposition which she might 
excite. Then, besides, her temper, never very 
sweet, was sadly soured by her husband's 
treatment of her. She vented her ill will upon 
those who would not yield to her wishes in re- 
spect to their religious faith. She caused more 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. IO9 

and more severe laws to be passed, and en- 
forced them by more and more severe penalties. 
The more she pressed these violent measures, 
the more the fortitude and resolution of those 
who suffered from them were aroused. And, 
on the other hand, the more they resisted, the 
more determined sihe became that she would 
compel them to submit. She went on from 
one mode of coercion to another, until she 
reached the last possible point, and inflicted 
the most dreadful physical suffering which it 
is possible for man to inflict upon his fellow- 
man. 

This worst and most terrible injury is to 
burn the living victim in a fire. That a woman 
could ever order this to be done would seem 
to be incredible. Queen Mary, however, and 
her government, were so determined to put 
down, at all hazards, all open disaffection to 
the Catholic cause, that they did not give up 
the contest until they had burned nearly 
three hundred persons by fire, of whom more 
than fifty were women and four were child- 
ren. This horrible persecution was, however, 
of no avail. Dissentients increased faster than 
they, could be burned ; and such dreadful pun- 
ishments became at last so intolerably odious 
to the nation that they were obliged to desist, 



110 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

and then the various ministers of state con- 
cerned in them attempted to throw off the 
b'.ame upon each other. The English nation 
have never forgiven Mary for these atrocities. 
They gave her the name of Bloody Mary at 
the time, and she has retained it to the present 
day. In one of the ancient histories of the 
realm, at the head of the chapter devoted to 
Alary, there is placed, as an appropriate em- 
blem of the character of her reign, the picture 
of a man writhing helplessly at a stake, with 
the flames curling around him, and a feroc- 
ious-looking soldier standing by, stirring up 
the fire. 

The various disappointments, vexations, 
and trials which Mary endured toward the 
close of her life, had one good effect ; they sof- 
tened the animosity which she had felt to- 
ward Elizabeth, and in the end something like 
a friendship seemed to spring up between the 
sisters. Abandoned by her husband, and 
looked upon with dislike or hatred by her 
subjects, and disappointed in all her plans, she 
seemed to turn at last to Elizabeth for com- 
panionship and comfort. The sisters visited 
each other. First Elizabeth went to London 
to visit the queen, and was received with great 
ceremony and parade. Then the queen went 




Elizabeth, /ace p. no 



Mary, Queen of England. 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. Ill 

to Hatfield to visit the princess, attended by a 
large company of ladies and gentlemen of the 
court, and several days were spent there in 
festivities and .rejoicings. There were plays 
in the palace, and a bear-baiting in the court- 
yard, and hunting in the park, and many other 
schemes of pleasure. This renewal of friendly 
intercourse between the queen and the prin- 
cess brought the latter gradually out of her re- 
tirement. Now that the queen began to evince 
a friendly spirit toward her, it was safe for 
others to show her kindness and to pay her 
attention. The disposition to do this increased 
rapidly as Mary's health gradually declined, 
and it began to be understood that she would 
not live long, and that, consequently, Eliza- 
beth would soon be called to the throne. 

The war which Mary had been drawn into 
with France, by Philip's threat that he would 
never see her again, proved very disastrous. 
The town of Calais, which is opposite to Dover, 
across the straits, and, of course, on the French 
side of the channel, had been in the pos- 
session of the English for two hundred years. 
It was very gratifying to English pride to hold 
possession of such a stronghold on the French 
shore; but now every thing seemed to go 
against Mary. Calais was defended by a cita- 



112 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

del nearly as large as the town itself, and was 
deemed impregnable. In addition to this, an 
enormous English force was concentrated 
there. The French general, however, contriv- 
ed, partly by stratagem, and partly by over- 
powering numbers of troops, and ships, and 
batteries of cannon, to get possession of the 
whole. The English nation were indignant 
at this result. Their queen and her govern- 
ment, so energetic in imprisoning and burn- 
ing her own subjects at home, were powerless, 
it seemed , in coping with their enemies 
abroad. Murmurs of dissatisfaction were 
heard every where, and Mary sank down upon 
her sick bed overwhelmed with disappoint- 
ment, vexation, and chagrin. She said that 
she should die, and that if, after her death, 
they examined her body, they would find Cal- 
ais like a load upon her heart. 

In the mean time, it must have been Eliza- 
beth's secret wish that she would die, since her 
death would release the princess from all the 
embarrassments and restraints of her position, 
and raise her at once to the highest pinnacle 
of honor and power. She remained, however, 
quietly at Hatfield, acting in all things in a 
very discreet and cautious manner. At one 
time she received proposals from the King of 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 113 

Sweden that she would accept of his son as 
her husband. She asked the embassador if he 
had communicated the affair to Mary. On his 
replying that he had not, Elizabeth said that 
she could not entertain at all any such ques- 
tion, unless her sister were first consulted and 
should give her approbation. She acted on 
the same principles in every thing, being very 
cautious to give Mary and her government 
no cause of complaint against her, and willing 
to wait patiently until her own time should 
come. 

Though Mary's disappointments and losses 
filled her mind with anguish and suffering, 
they did not soften her heart. She seemed to 
grow more cruel and vindictive the more her 
plans and projects failed. Adversity vexed 
and irritated, instead of calming and subdu- 
ing her. She revived her persecutions of the 
Protestants. She fitted out a fleet of a hundred 
and twenty ships to make a descent upon the 
French coast, and attempt to retrieve her fall- 
en fortunes there. She called Parliament to- 
gether and asked for more supplies. All this 
time she was confined to her sick chamber, 
but not considered in danger. The Parlia- 
ment were debating the question of supplies. 
Her privy council were holding daily meet- 



114 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

ings to carry out the plans and schemes which 
she still continued to form, and all was excite- 
ment and bustle in and around the court, when 
one day the council was thunderstruck by an 
announcement that she was dying. 

They knew very well that her death would 
be a terrible blow to them. They were all 
Catholics, and had been Mary's instruments 
in the terrible persecutions with which she had 
oppressed the Protestant faith. With Mary's 
death, of course they would fall. A Protest- 
ant princess was ready, at Hatfield, to ascend 
the throne. Every thing would be changed, 
and there was even danger that they might, in 
their turn, be sent to the stake, in retaliation 
for the cruelties which they had caused others 
to suffer They made arrangements to have 
Mary's death, whenever it should take place, 
concealed for a few hours, till they could con- 
sider what they should do. 

There was nothing that they could do. 
There was now no other considerable claimant 
to the throne but Elizabeth, except Mary 
Queen of Scots, who was far away in France. 
She was a Catholic, it was true ; but to bring 
her into the country and place her upon the 
throne seemed to be a hopeless undertaking. 
Queen Mary's counselors soon found that they 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. II5 

must give up their cause in despair. Any at- 
tempt to resist Elizabeth's claims would be 
nigh treason, and, of course, if unsuccessful, 
would bring the heads of all concerned in it to 
the block. 

Besides, it was not certain that Elizabeth 
would act decidedly as a Protestant She had 
been very prudent and cautious during Mary's 
reign, and had been very careful never to man- 
ifest any hostility to the Catholics. She never 
had acted as Mary had done on the occasion 
of her brother's funeral, when she refused 
even to countenance with her presence the na- 
tional service because it was under Protestant 
forms. Elizabeth had always accompanied 
Mary to mass whenever occasion required; 
she had always spoken respectfully of the 
Catholic faith ; and once she asked Mary to 
lend her some Catholic books, in order that 
she might inform herself more fully on the 
subject of the principles of the Roman faith. 
It is true, she acted thus, not because there 
was, any real leaning in her mind toward the 
Catholic religion ; it was all merely a wise and 
sagacious policy. Surrounded by difficulties 
and dangers as she was during Mary's reign, 
her only hope of safety was in passing as quiet- 
ly as possible along, and managing warily, so 



Il6 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

as to keep the hostility which was burning se- 
cretly against her from breaking out into an 
open flame. This was her object in retiring so 
much from the court and from all participa- 
tion in public affairs, in avoiding all religious 
and political contests, and spending her time 
in the study of Greek, and Latin, and philos- 
ophy. The consequence was, that when 
Mary died, nobody knew certainly what 
course Elizabeth would pursue. Nobody had 
any strong motive for opposing her succes- 
sion. The council, therefore, after a short con- 
sultation, concluded to do nothing but simply 
to send a message to the House of Lords, an- 
nouncing to them the unexpected death of the 
queen. 

The House of Lords, on receiving this in- 
telligence, sent for the Commons to come into 
their hall, as is usual when any important 
communication is to be made to them either 
by the Lords themselves or by the Sovereign. 
The chancellor, who is the highest civil of- 
ficer of the kingdom in respect to rank, and 
who presides in the House of Lords, clothed in 
a magnificent antique costume, then rose and 
announced to the Commons, standing, before 
him, the death of the sovereign. There 
was a moment's solemn pause, such as pro- 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 11/ 

priety on the occasion of an announcement 
like this required, all thoughts being, too, for 
a moment turned to the chamber where the 
body of the departed queen was lying. But 
the sovereignty was no longer there. The 
mysterious principle had fled with the parting 
breath, and Elizabeth, though wholly uncon- 
scious of it, had been for several hours the 
queen. The thoughts, therefore, of the august 
and solemn assembly lingered but for a mo- 
ment in the royal palace, which had now 
lost all its glory; they soon turned spon- 
taneously, and with eager haste, to the 
new sovereign at Hatfield, and the lofty 
arches of the Parliament hall rung with loud 
acclamations, "God save Queen Elizabeth, and 
grant her a long and happy reign." 

The members of the Parliament went forth 
immediately to proclaim the new queen. 
There are two principal places where it was 
then customary to proclaim the English sov- 
ereigns. One of these was before the royal 
palace at Westminster, and the other in the 
city of London, at a very public place called 
the Great Cross at Cheapside. The people as- 
sembled in great crowds at these points to 
witness the ceremony, and receive the an- 
nouncement which the heralds made, with the 



Il8 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

most ardent expressions of joy. The bells were 
every where rung; tables were spread in the 
streets, and booths erected ; bonfires and il- 
luminations were prepared for the evening, 
and every thing indicated a deep and univer- 
sal joy. 

In fact, this joy was so strongly expressed 
as to be even in some degree disrespectful to 
the memory of the departed queen. There is 
a famous ancient Latin hymn which has long 
been sung in England and on the Continent 
of Europe on occasions of great public rejoic- 
ing. It is called the Te Deum, or sometimes 
the Te Deum Laudamus. These last are tihe 
three Latin words with which the hymn com- 
mences, and mean, Thee, God, we praise. 
They sung the Te Deum in the churches of 
London on the Sunday after Mary died. 

In the mean time, messengers from the 
council proceeded with all speed to Hatfield 
to announce to Elizabeth the death of her sis- 
ter, and her own accession to the sovereign 
power. The tidings, of course, filled Eliza- 
beth's mind with the deepest emotions. TI12 
oppressive sense of constraint and danger 
which she had endured as her daily burden 
for so many years, was lifted suddenly from 
her soul. She could not but rejoice, though 





&U&L&>^ 



^W§":mmM 




Elizabeth, face p. 11 

Elizabeth Acknowledged by the clergy. 

-Elizabeth 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 1 19 

she was too much upon her guard to express 
her joy. She was overwhelmend with a pro- 
found agitation, and, kneeling down, she ex- 
claimed in Latin, "It is the Lord's doing, and 
it is wonderful in our eyes." 

Several cf the members of Mary's privy 
council repaired immediately to Hatfield. The 
queen summoned them to attend her and in 
their presence appointed her chief secretary of 
state. His name was Sir William Cecil. He 
was a man of great learning and ability, and 
he remained in office under Elizabeth for forty 
years. He became her chief adviser and in- 
strument, an able, faithful, and indefatigable 
servant and friend during almost the whole of 
her reign. His name is accordingly indissol- 
ubly connected with that of Elizabeth in all 
the political events which occurred while she 
continued upon the throne, and it will, in con- 
sequence, very frequently occur in the sequel 
of this history. He was now about forty years 
of age. Elizabeth was twenty-five. 

Elizabeth had known Cecil long before. He 
had been a faithful and^true friend to her in 
her adversity. He had been, in many cases, a 
confidential adviser, and had maintained a 
secret correspondence with her in certain try- 
ing periods of her life. She had resolved, 



120 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

doubtless, to make him her chief secretary of 
state so soon as she should succeed to the 
throne. And now that the time had arrived, 
she instated him solemnly in his office. In so 
doing, she pronounced, in the hearing of the 
other members of the council, the following 
charge : 

"I give you this charge that you shall be of 
my privy council, and content yourself to take 
pains for me and my realm. This judgment 
I have of you, that you will not be corrupted 
with any gift ; and that you will be faithful to 
the state ; and that, without respect of my pri- 
vate will, you will give me that counsel that 
you think best; and that, if you shall know 
any thing necessary to be declared to me of 
secrecy, you shall show it to myself only ; and 
assure yourself I will not fail to keep taciturn- 
ity therein. And therefore herewith I charge 
you." 

It was about a week after the death of Mary 
before the arrangements were completed for 
Elizabeth's journey to London to take pos- 
session of the castles and palaces which per- 
tain there to the English sovereigns. She was 
followed on this journey by a train of about 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. I2l 

a thousand attendants, all nobles or person- 
ages of high rank, both gentlemen and ladies. 
She went first to a palace called the Charter 
House, near London, where she stopped until 
preparations could be made for her formal and 
public entrance into the Tower ; not, as before, 
through the Traitors' Gate, a prisoner, but 
openly, through the grand entrance, in the 
midst of acclamations, as the proud and ap- 
plauded sovereign of the mighty realm whose 
capital the ancient fortress was stationed to 
defend. The streets through which the gor- 
geous procession was to pass were spread with 
fine, smooth gravel; bands of musicians were 
stationed at intervals, and decorated arches, 
and banners, and flags, with countless devices 
of loyalty and welcome, and waving handker- 
chiefs, greeted her all the way. Heralds and 
other great officers, magnificently dressed, 
and mounted on horses richly caparisoned, 
rode before her, announcing her approach, 
with trumpets and proclamations ; while she 
followed in the train, mounted upon a beauti 
ful horse, the object of universal homage. 
Thus Elizabeth entered the Tower; and inas- 
much as forgetting her friends is a fault with 
which she- can not justly be charged, we may 
hope, at least, that one of the first acts which 



i2i Queen eliZabetth. 

she performed, after getting established in the 
royal apartments, was to send for and reward 
the kind-hearted child who had been repri- 
manded for bringing her the flowers. 

The coronation, when the time arrived for 
it, was very splendid. The queen went in 
state in a sumptuous chariot, preceded by 
trumpeters and heralds in armor, and accom- 
panied by a long train of noblemen, barons, 
and gentlemen, and also of ladies, all most 
richly dressed in crimson velvet, the trappings 
of the horses being of the same material. The 
people of London thronged all the streets 
through which she was to pass, and 
made the air resound with shouts and 
acclamations. There were triumphal arches 
erected here and there on the way, with 
a great variety of odd and quaint de- 
vices, and a child stationed upon each, 
who explained the devices to Elizabeth 
as she passed, in English verse, written for the 
occasion. One of these pageants was entitled 
"The Seat of worthy Goverance." There was 
a throne, supported by figures which repre- 
sented the cardinal virtues , such as Piety, 
Wisdom, Temperance, Industry, Truth, and 
beneath their feet were the opposite vices, Su- 
perstition, Ignorance, Intemperance, Idleness, 




Elizabeth , face p. 1 22 



Queen Elizabeth of England. 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 12.3 

and Falsehood : these the virtues were tramp- 
ling upon. On the throne was a representa- 
tion of Elizabeth. At one place were eight 
personages dressed to represent the eight 
beatitudes pronounced by our Savior in his 
sermon on the Mount — the meek, the merci- 
ful, &c. Each of these qualities was ingen- 
iously ascribed to Elizabeth. This could be 
done with much more propriety then than in 
subsequent years. In another place, an an- 
cient figure, representing Time, came out of a 
cave which had been artificially constructed 
with great ingenuity, leading his daughter, 
whose name was Truth. Truth had an English 
Bible in her hands, which she presented to 
Elizabeth as she passed. This had a great 
deal of meaning; for the Catholic government 
of Mary had discouraged the circulation of 
the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. When 
the procession arrived in the middle of the 
city, some officers of the city government ap- 
proached the queen's chariot, and delivered to 
her a present of a very large and heavy purse 
filled with gold. The queen had to employ 
both hands in lifting it in. It contained an 
amount equal in value to two or three thous- 
and dollars. 

The queen was very affable and gracious to 



124 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

all the people on the way. Poor women 
would come up to her carriage and offer her 
flowers, which she would very condescending- 
ly accept. Several times she stopped her car- 
riage when she saw that any one wished to 
speak with her, or had something to offer; and 
so great was the exaltation of a queen in those 
days, in the estimation of mankind, that these 
acts were considered by all the humble citizens 
of London as acts of very extraordinary affa- 
bility, and they awakened universal enthus- 
iasm. There was one branch of rosemary giv- 
en to the queen by a poor woman in Fleet 
Street; the queen put it up conspicuously in 
the carriage, where it remained all the way, 
watched by ten thousand eyes, till it got to 
Westminster. 

The coronation took place at Westminster 
on the following day. The crown was placed 
upon the young maiden's head in the midst of 
a great throng of ladies and gentlemen, who 
were all superbly dressed, and who made the 
vast edifice in which the service was perform- 
ed ring with their acclamations and their 
shouts of "Long live the Queen !" During the 
ceremonies, Elizabeth placed a wedding ring 
upon her finger with great formality, to de- 
note that she considered the occasion as the 



ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 



I2S 



celebration of her espousal to the realm of 
England ; she was that day a bride, and should 
never have, she said, any other husband. She 




Courtiers and Ladies of Elizabeth's time, 
kept this, the only wedding ring she ever wore, 
upon her finger, without once removing it, 
for more than forty years. 




CHAPTER VII. 



THE WAR IN SCOTLAND. 



Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots 
are strongly associated together in the minds 
of all readers of English history. They were 
contemporary sivereigns, reigning at the same 
time over sister kingdoms. They were cou- 
sins, and yet, precisely on account of the fam- 
ily relationship which existed between them, 
they became implacable foes. The rivalry 
and hostility, sometimes open and sometimes 
concealed, was always in action, and, after a 
contest of more than twenty years, Elizabeth 
triumphed. She made Mary her prisoner, 
kept her many years a captive, and at last 
closed the contest by commanding, or at least 
allowing, her fallen rival to be beheaded. 

Thus Elizabeth had it all her own way while 
the scenes of her life and of Mary's were 
transpiring, but since that time mankind have 
generally sympathized most strongly with the 
conquered one, and condemned the conquer- 
or. There are several reasons for this, and 
126 



WAR IN SCOTLAND. 12/ 

among them is the vast influence exerted by 
the difference in the personal character of the 
parties. Mary was beautiful, feminine in 
spirit, and lovely. Elizabeth was talented, mas- 
culine, and plain. Mary was artless, unaffect- 
ed, and gentle. Elizabeth was heartless, in- 
triguing, and insincere. With Mary, though 
her ruling principle was ambition, her ruling 
passion was love. Her love led her to great 
transgressions and into many sorrows, but 
mankind pardon the sins and pity the suffer- 
ings which are caused by love more readil) 
than those of any other origin. With Eliza- 
beth, ambition was the ruling principle, and 
the ruling passion too. Love, with her, was 
only a pastime. Her transgressions were the 
cool, deliberate, well-considered acts* of selfish- 
ness and desire of power. During her lifetime 
her success secured her the applauses of the 
world. The world is always ready to glorify 
the greatness which rises visibly before it, and 
to forget sufferings which are meekly and pa- 
tiently borne in seclusion and solitude. Men 
praised and honored Elizabeth, therefore, 
while she lived, and neglected Mary. But 
since the halo and the fascination of the vis- 
ible greatness and glory have passed away, 
they have found a far greater charm in Mary's 



128 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

beauty and misfortune than in her great ri- 
val's pride and power. 

There is often thus a great difference in the 
comparative interest we take in persons or 
scenes, when, on the one hand, they are reali- 
ties before our eyes, and when, on the other, 
they are only imaginings which are brought 
to our minds by pictures or descriptions. The 
hardships which it was very disagreeable or 
painful to bear, afford often great amusement 
or pleasure in the recollection. The old broken 
gate which a gentleman would not tolerate an 
hour upon his grounds, is a great beauty in 
the picture which hangs in his parlor. We 
shun poverty and distress while they are act- 
ually existing; nothing is more disagreeable 
to us ; and we gaze upon prosperity and wealth 
with neverceasing pleasure. But when they 
are gone, and we have only the tale to hear, 
it is the story of sorrow and suffering which 
possesses the charm. Thus it happened that 
when the two queens were living realities, 
Elizabeth was the centre of attraction and the 
object of universal homage; but when they 
came to be themes of 'history, all eyes and 
hearts began soon to turn instinctively to 
Mary. It was London, and Westminster, and 
Kenilworth that possessed the interest while 



WAR IN SCOTLAND. 129 

Elizabeth lived, but it is Holyrood and Loch 
Leven now. 

It results from these causes that Mary's 
story is read far more frequently than Eliza- 
beth's, and this operates still further to the ad- 
vantage of the former, for we are always prone 
to take sides with the heroine of the tale we 
are reading. All these considerations, which 
have had so much influence on the judgment 
men form, or, rather, on the feelings to which 
they incline in this famous contest, have, it 
must be confessed, very little to do with 
true merits of the case. And if we make a ser- 
ious attempt to lay all such considerations 
aside, and to look into the controversy with 
cool and rigid impartiality, we shall find it 
very difficult to arrive at any satisfactory con- 
clusion. There are two questions to be de- 
cided. In advancing their conflicting claims 
to the English crown, was it Elizabeth or Mary 
that was in the right? If Elizabeth was right, 
were the measures which she resorted to to se- 
cure her own rights, and to counteract Mary's 
pretensions, politically justifiable? We do not 
propose to add our own to the hundred decis- 
ions which various writers have given to this 
question, but only to narrate the facts, and 



I3O QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

leave each reader to come to his own conclu 
sion. 

The foundation of the long and dreadful 
quarrel between those royal cousins was, as 
has been already remarked, their consanguin- 
ity, which made them both competitors for the 
same throne ; and as that throne was, in some 
respects, the highest and most powerful in the 
world, it is not surprising that two such am- 
bitious women should be eager and persever- 
ing in their contest for it. By turning to the 
genealogical table on page 57, where a view 
is presented of the royal family of England in 
the time of Elizabeth, the reader will see once 
more what was the precise relationship which 
the two queens bore to each other and to the 
succession. By this table it is very evident 
that Elizabeth was the true inheritor of the 
crown, provided it were admitted that she was 
the lawful daughter and heir of King Henry 
the Eighth, and this depended on the question 
of the validity of her father's marriage with 
his first wife, Catharine of Aragon ; for, as has 
been before said, he was married to Anne 
Boleyn before obtaining any thing like a di- 
vorce from Catharine; consequently, the mar- 
riage with Elizabeth's mother could not be le- 
gally valid, unless that with Catharine had 



WAR IN SCOTLAND. 131 

been void from the beginning. The friends of 
Mary Queen of Scots maintained that it was 
not thus void, and that, consequently, the 
marriage with Anne Boleyn was null; that El- 
izabeth, therefore, the descendant of the mar- 
riage, was not, legally and technically, a 
daughter of Henry the Eighth, and, conse- 
quently, not entitled to inherit his crown ; and 
that the crown, of right, ought to descend to 
the next heir, that is, to Mary Queen of Scots 
herself. 

Queen Elizabeth's friends and partisans 
maintained, on the other hand, that the mar- 
riage of King Henry with Catharine was null 
and void from the beginning, because Cathar- 
ine had been before the wife of his brother. 
The circumstances of this marriage were very 
curious and peculiar. It was his father's work, 
and not his own. His father was King Henry 
the Seventh. Henry the Seventh had several 
children, and among them were his two oldest 
sons, Arthur and Henry. When Arthur was 
about sixteen years old, his father, being very 
much in want of money, conceived the plan of 
replenishing his coffers by marrying his son 
to a rich wife. He accordingly contracted a 
marriage between him and Catharine of Ara- 
gon, Catharine's father agreeing to pay him 

JO— Elizabeth 



I32 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

two hundred thousand crowns as her dowry. 
The juvenile bridegroom enjoyed the honors 
and pleasures of married life for a few months, 
and then died. 

This event was a great domestic calamity to 
the king, not because he mourned the loss of 
his son, but that he could not bear the idea of 
the loss of the dowry. By the law and usage 
in such cases, he was bound not only to forego 
the payment of the other half of the dowry, 
but he had himself no right to retain the half 
that lie had already received. While his son 
lived, being a minor, the father might, not im- 
properly, hold the money in his son's name; 
but when he died this right ceased, and as Ar- 
thur left no child, Henry perceived that he 
should be obliged to pay back the money. To 
avoid this unpleasant necessity, the king con- 
ceived the plan of marrying the youthful wid- 
ow again to his second boy, Henry, who was 
about a year younger than Arthur, and he 
made proposals to this effect to the King of 
Aragon. 

The King of Aragon made no objection to 
this proposal except that it was a thing un- 
heard of among Christian nations, or heard of 
only to be condemned, for a man or even a 
boy to marry his brother's widow. All laws, 



War in Scotland. 133 

human and divine, were clear and absolute 
against this. Still, if the dispensation of the 
pope could be obtained, he would make no ob- 
jection. Catharine might espouse the second 
boy, and he would allow the one hundred 
thousand crowns already paid to stand, and 
would also pay the other hundred thousand. 
The dispensation was accordingly obtained, 
and everything made ready for the marriage. 

Very soon after this, however, and before 
the new marriage was carried into effect, King 
Henry the Seventh died, and this second boy, 
now the oldest son, though only about seven- 
teen years of age, ascended the throne as King 
Henry the Eighth. There was great discus- 
sion and debate, soon after his accession, 
whether the marriage which his father had ar- 
ranged should proceed. Some argued that no 
papal dispensation could authorize or justify 
such a marriage. Others maintained that a pa- 
pal dispensation could legalize any thing ; ior 
it is a doctrine of the Catholic Church that the 
pope has a certain discretionary power over all 
laws, human and divine, under the authority 
given to his great predecessor, the Apostle 
Peter, by the words of Christ: "Whatsoever 
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 



134 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

earth shall be loosed in heaven."* Henry 
seems not to have puzzled his head at all with 
the legal question ; he wanted to have the 
young widow for his wife, and he settled the 
affair on that ground alone. They were mar- 
ried. 

Catharine was a faithful and dutiful spouse ; 
but when, at last, Henry fell in love with Anne 
Boleyn, he made these old difficulties a pretext 
for discarding her. He endeavored, as has 
been already related, to induce the papal au- 
thorities to annul their dispensation ; because 
they would not do it, he espoused the Protest- 
ant cause, and England, as a nation, seceded 
from the Catholic communion. The ecclesi- 
astical and parliamentary authorities of his 
own realm then, being made Protestant, an- 
nulled the marriage, and thus Anne Boleyn, 
to whom he had previously been married by a 
private ceremony, became legally and techni- 
cally his wife. If this annulling of his first 
marriage were valid, then Elizabeth was his 
heir — otherwise not ; for if the pope's dispen- 
sation was to stand, then Catherine was a wife. 
Anne Boleyn would in that case, of course, 
have been only a companion, and Elizabeth, 
claiming through her, a usurper. 
*Matthew, xvi., 19. 



WAR IN SCOTLAND. 1 35 

The question, thus, was very complicated. 
It branched into extensive ramifications, 
which opened a wide field of debate, and led 
to endless controversies. It is not probable, 
however, that Mary Queen of Scots, or her 
friends, gave themselves much trouble about 
the legal points at issue. She and they were 
all Catholics, and it was sufficient for them to 
know that the Holy Father at Rome had sanc- 
tioned the marriage of Catherine, and that 
that marriage, if allowed to stand, made her 
the Queen of England. She was at this time 
in France. She had been sent there at a very 
early period of her life, to escape the troubles 
of her native land, and also to be educated. 
She was a gentle and beautiful child, and as 
she grew up amid the gay scenes and festivi- 
ties of Paris, she became a very great favorite, 
being universally beloved. She married at 
length, though while she was still quite 
young, the son of the French king. Her 
young husband became king himself soon af- 
terward, on account of his father's being kill- 
ed, in a very remarkable manner, at a tourna- 
ment; and thus Mary, Queen of Scots before, 
became also Queen of France now. All these 
events, passed over thus very summarily 
here, are narrated in full detail in the History 



I36 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

of Mary Queen of Scots pertaining to this 
series. 

While Mary was thus residing in France as 
the wife of the king, she was surrounded by a 
very large and influential circle, who were 
Catholics like herself, and Who were also ene- 
mies of Elizabeth and of England, and glad to 
find any pretext for disturbing her reign. 
These persons brought forward Mary's claim. 
They persuaded Mary that she was fairly en- 
titled to the English crown. They awakened 
her youthful ambition, and excited strong de- 
sires in her heart to attain to the high eleva- 
tion of Queen of England. Mary at length 
assumed the title in some of her official acts, 
and combined the arms of England with those 
of Scotland in the escutcheons with which her 
furniture and her plate were emblazoned. 

When Queen Elizabeth learned that Mary 
was advancing such pretensions to her crown, 
she was made very uneasy by it. There was, 
perhaps, no immediate danger, but then there 
was a very large Catholic party in England, 
and they would naturally espouse Mary's 
cause, and they might, at some future time, 
gather strength so as to make Elizabeth a 
great deal of trouble. She accordingly sent 
an embassador over to France to remonstrate 



WAR IN SCOTLAND. 1 37 

against Mary's advancing these pretensions. 
But she could get no satisfactory reply. Mary 
would not disavow her claim to Elizabeth's 
crown, nor would she directly assert it. Eliz- 
abeth, then, knowing that all her danger lay 
in the power and influence of her own Cath- 
olic subjects, went to work, very cautiously 
and warily, but in a very extended and effici- 
ent way, to establish the Reformation, and to 
undermine and destroy all traces of Catholic 
power. She proceeded in this work with 
great circumspection, so as not to excite op- 
position or alarm.v/ 

In the meantime, the Protestant cause was 
making progress in Scotland too, by its own 
inherent energies, and against the influence of 
the government. Finally, the Scotch Pro- 
testants organized themselves, and commenc- 
ed an open rebellion against the regent whom 
Mary had left in power while she was away. 
They sent to Elizabeth to come and aid them. 
Mary and her friends in France sent French 
troops to assist the government. Elizabeth 
hesitated very much whether to comply with 
the request of the rebels. It is very dangerous 
for a sovereign to countenance rebellion in 
any way. Then she shrunk, too, from the ex- 
pense which she foresaw that such an attempt 



I38 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

would involve. To fit out a fleet, and to levy 
and equip an army, and to continue the forces 
thus raised in action during a long and un- 
certain campaign, would cost a large sum of 
money, and Elizabeth was constitutionally 
economical and frugal. But then, on the other 
hand, as she deliberated upon the affair long 
and anxiously, both alone and with her coun- 
cil, she thought that, if she should so far suc- 
ceed as to get the government of Scotland 
into her power, she could compel Mary to re- 
nounce forever all claims to the English 
crown, by threatening her, if she would not do 
it, with the loss of her own. 

Finally, she decided on making the attempt. 
Cecil, her wise and prudent counselor, strong- 
ly advised it. He said it was far better to 
carry on the contest with Mary and the 
French in one of their countries than in her 
own. She began to make preparations. Mary 
and the French government, on learning this, 
were alarmed in their turn. They sent word 
to Elizabeth that for her to render counten- 
ance and aid to rebels in arms against their 
sovereign, in a sister kingdom, was wholly 
unjustifiable, and they remonstrated most 
earnestly against it. Besides making this re- 
monstrance, they offered, as an inducement of 



WAR IN SCOTLAND. 1 39 

another kind, that if she would refrain from 
taking any part in the contest in Scotland, 
they would restore to her the great town and 
citadel of Calais, which her sister had been so 
much grieved to lose. To this Elizabeth re- 
plied that, so long as Mary adhered to ner 
pretensions to the English crown, she should 
be compelled to take energetic measures to 
protect herself from them ; and as to Calais, 
the possession of a fishing town on a foreign 
coast was of no moment to her in comparison 
with the peace and security of her own realm. 
This answer did not tend to close the breach. 
Besides the bluntness of the refusal of their 
offer, the French were irritated and vexed to 
hear their famous sea-port spoken of so con- 
temptuously. 

Elizabeth accordingly fitted out a fleet and 
an army, and sent them northward. A French 
fleet, with re-enforcements for Mary's adher- 
ents in this contest, set sail from France at 
about the same time. It was a very import 
ant question to be determined which of these 
two fleets should get first upon the stage of 
action. 

In the meantime, the Protestant party in 
Scotland, or the rebels, as Queen Mary and 
her government called them, had had very 



140 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

hard work to maintain their ground. There 
was a large French force already there, and 
their co-operation and aid made the govern- 
ment too strong for the insurgents to resist. 
But, when Elizabeth's English army crossed 
the frontier, the face of affairs was changed. 
The French forces retreated in their turn. 
The English army advanced. The Scotch 
Protestants came forth from the recesses of 
the Highlands to which they had retreated, 
and, drawing closer and closer around the 
French and the government forces, they hem- 
med them in more and more narrowly, and at 
last shut them up in the ancient town of 
Leith, to which they retreated in search of a 
temporary shelter, until the French fleet, with 
re-enforcements, should arrive. 

The town of Leith is on the shore of the 
Firth of Forth, not far from Edinburgh. It is 
the port or landing-place of Edinburgh, in 
approaching it from the sea. It is on the 
southern shore of the firth, and Edinburgh 
stands on higher land, about two miles south 
of it. Leith was strongly fortified in those 
days, and the French army felt very secure 
there, though yet anxiously awaiting the ar- 
rival of the fleet which was to release them. 
The English army advanced in the mean 



WAR IN SCOTLAND. I4I 

time, eager -to get possession of the city be- 
fore the expected succors should arrive. The 
English made an assault upon the walls. The 
French, with desperate bravery, repelled it. 
The French made a sortie ; that is, they rush- 
ed out of a sudden and attacked the English 
lines. The English concentrated their forces 
at the point attacked, and drove them back 
again. These struggles continued, both sides 
very eager for victory, and both watching all 
the time for the appearance of a fleet in the 
offing. 

At length, one day, a cloud of white sails 
appeared rounding the point of land which 
forms the southern boundary of the firth, and 
the French were thrown at once into the high- 
est state of exultation and excitement. But 
this pleasure was soon turned into disappoint- 
ment and chagrin by finding that it was Eliz- 
abeth's fleet, and not theirs, which was com- 
ing into view. This ended the contest. The 
French fleet never arrived. It was dispersed 
and destroyed by a storm. The besieged army 
sent out a flag of truce, proposing to suspend 
hostilities until the terms of a treaty could be 
agreed upon. The truce was granted. Com- 
missioners were appointed on each side. 
These commissioners met at Edinburgh, and 



142 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

agreed upon the terms of a permanent peace. 
The treaty, which is called in history the 
Treaty of Edinburgh, was solemnly signed by 
the commissioners appointed to make it, and 
then transmitted to England and to France to 
be ratified by the respective queens. Queen 
Elizabeth's forces and the French forces were 
then both, as the treaty provided, immediately 
withdrawn. The dispute, too, between the 
Protestants and the Catholics in Scotland was 
also settled, though it is not necessary for our 
purpose in this narrative to explain particu- 
larly in what way. 

There was one point, however, in the stipu- 
lations of this treaty which is of essential im- 
portance in this narrative, and that is, that it 
was agreed that Mary should relinquish all 
claims whatever to the English crown so long 
as Elizabeth lived. This, in fact, was the es- 
sential point in the whole transaction. Mary, 
it is true, was not present to agree to it; but 
the commissioners agreed to it in her name, 
and it was stipulated that Mary should 
solemnly ratify the treaty as soon as it could 
be sent to her. 

But Mary would not ratify it — at least so 
far as this last article was concerned. She 
said that she had no intention of doing any- 



WAR IN SCOTLAND. 



143 



thing to molest Elizabeth in her possession of 
the throne, but that as to herself, whatever 




Mary, Queen of Scots. 

rights might legally and justly belong to her, 
she could not consent to sign them away. The 



144 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

other articles of the treaty had, however, in the 
meantime, brought the war to a close, and 
both the French and English armies were 
withdrawn. Neither party had any inclina- 
tion to renew the confliot ; but yet, so far as 
the great question between Mary and Eliza- 
beth was concerned, the difficulty was as far 
from being settled as ever. In fact, it was in a 
worse position than before ; for, in addition to 
her other grounds of complaint against Mary, 
Elizabeth now charged her with dishonorably 
refusing to be bound by a compact which had 
been solemnly made in her name, by agents 
whom she had fully authorized to make it. 

It was about this time that Mary's 'husband, 
the King of France, died, and, after enduring- 
various trials and troubles in France, Mary 
concluded to return to her own realm. She 
sent to Elizabeth to get a safe-conduct — a sort 
of permission allowing her to pass unmolested 
through the English seas. Elizabeth refused 
to grant it unless Mary would first ratify the 
treaty of Edinburgh. This Mary would not 
do, but undertook, rather, to get home with- 
out the permission. Elizabeth sent ships to 
intercept her; but Mary's little squadron, 
when they approached the shore, were hidden 
by a fog, and so she got safe to land. 




CHAPTER VIII. 



ELIZABETH S LOVERS. 



Elizabeth was now securely established 
upon her throne. It is true that Mary Queen 
of Scots had not renounced her pretensions, 
but there was no immediate prospect of her 
making any attempt to realize them, and very 
little hope for her that she would be success- 
ful, if she were to undertake it. There were 
other claimants, it is true, but their claims 
were more remote and doubtful than Mary's. 
These conflicting pretensions were likely to 
make the country some trouble after Eliza- 
beth's death, but there was very slight proba- 
bility that they would sensibly molest Eliza- 
beth's possession of the throne during her life- 
time, though they caused her no little anxiety. 

The reign which Elizabeth thus commenced 

was one of the longest, most brilliant, and, in 

many respects, the most prosperous in the 

whole series presented to our view in the long 

succession of English sovereigns. Elizabeth 

continued a queen for forty-five years, during 

145 



I46 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

all which time she remained a single lady ; and 
she died, at last, a venerable maiden, seventy 
years of age. 

It was not for want of lovers, or, rather, of 
admirers and suitors, that Elizabeth lived sin- 
gle all her days. During the first twenty years 
of her reign, one half of her history is a his- 
tory of matrimonial schemes and negotia- 
tions. It seemed as if all the marriageable 
princes and potentates of Europe were seized, 
one after another, with a desire to share her 
seat upon the English throne. They tried 
every possible means to win her consent. They 
dispatched embassadors; they opened long 
negotiations ; they sent her ship-loads of the 
most expensive presents; some of the nobles 
of high rank in her own realm expended their 
vast estates, and reduced themselves to pover- 
ty, in vain attempts to please her. Elizabeth, 
like any other woman, loved these attentions. 
They pleased her vanity, and gratified those 
instinctive impulses of the female heart by 
which woman is fitted for happiness and love. 
Elizabeth encouraged the hopes of those who 
addressed her sufficiently to keep them from 
giving up in despair and abandoning her. 
And in one or two cases she seemed to come 
very near yielding. But it always happened 




Elizabeth, face p. U6 



11— Elizabeth 



Queen Elizabeth and Suitor. 



147 

when fhe time arrived in which a final de- 
cision must be made, ambition and desire of 
power proved stronger than love, and she 
preferred continuing to occupy her lofty posi- 
tion by herself, alone. 

Philip of Spain, the husband of her sister 
Mary, was the first of these suitors. He had 
seen Elizabeth a good deal in England during 
his residence there, and liad even taken her 
part in her difficulties with Mary, and had ex- 
erted his influence to have her released from 
her confinement. As soon as Mary died and 
Elizabeth was proclaimed, one of her first acts 
was, as was very proper, to send an embassa- 
dor to Flanders to inform the bereaved hus- 
band of his loss. It is a curious illustration of 
the degree and kind of affection that Philip 
had borne to his departed wife, that immedi- 
ately on receiving intelligence of her death by 
Elizabeth's embassador, he sent a special dis- 
patch to his own embassador in London to 
make a proposal to Elizabeth to take him for 
her husband ! 

Elizabeth decided very soon to decline this 
proposal. She had ostensible reasons, and 
real reasons for this. The chief ostensible rea- 
son was, that Philip was so inveterately hated 
by all the English people, and Elizabeth was 



I48 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

extremely desirous of being popular. She re- 
lied solely on the loyalty and faithfulness of 
her Protestant subjects to maintain her rights 
to the succession, and she knew that if she dis- 
pleased them by such an unpopular Catholic 
marriage, her reliance upon them must be 
very much weakened. They might even 
abandon her entirely. The reason, therefore, 
that she assigned publicly was, that Philip was 
a Catholic, and that the connection could not, 
on that account, be agreeable to the English 
people. 

Among the real reasons was one of a very 
peculiar nature. It happened that there was 
an objection to her marriage with Philip simi- 
lar to the one urged against that of Henry 
with Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had 
been the wife of Henry's brother. Philip had 
been the husband of Elizabeth's sister. Now 
Philip had offered to procure the pope's dis- 
pensation, by which means this difficulty 
would be surmounted. But then all the world 
would say, that if this dispensation could le- 
galize the latter marriage, the former must 
have been legalized by it, and this would de- 
stroy the marriage of Anne Boleyn, and with 
it all Elizabeth's claims to the succession. She 
could not, then, marry Philip, without, by 




Elizabeth, face p. 1l£ 



Philip II. of Spain. 



Elizabeth's lovers. 149 

the very act, effectually undermining all her 
own rights to the throne. She was far^ too 
subtle and wary to stumble into such a pitfall 

as that. 

Elizabeth rejected this and some other of- 
fers, and one or two years passed away. In 
the ' meantime, the people of the country, 
though they had no wish to have her marry 
such a stern and heartless tyrant as Philip of 
Spain, were very uneasy at the idea of her not 
being married at all. Her life would, of course, 
in due time, come to an end, and it was of im- 
mense importance to the peace and happiness 
of the realm that, after her death, there should 
be no doubt about the succession. If she were 
to be married and leave children, they would 
succeed to the throne without question ; but if 
she were to die single and childless, the re- 
sult would be, they feared, that the Catholics 
would espouse the cause of Mary Queen of 
Scots, and the Protestants that of some Pro- 
testant descendant of Henry VII., and thus 
the country be involved in all the horrors of a 
protracted civil war. 

The House of Commons in those day was a 
very humble council, convened to discuss and 
settle mere internal and domestic affairs, and 
standing at a vast distance from the splendor 



150 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

and power of royalty, to which it looked up 
with the profoundest reverence and awe. The 
Commons, at the close of one of their sessions, 
ventured, in a very timid and cautious manner, 
to send a petition 'to the queen, urging her to 
consent, for the sake of the future peace of 
the realm, and the welfare of her subjects, to 
accept of a husband. Few single persons are 
offended at a recommendation of marriage, 
if properly offered, from whatever quarter it 
may come. The queen, in this instance, re- 
turned what was called a very gracious reply. 
She, however, very decidedly refused the re- 
quest. She said that, as they had been very 
respectful in the form of their petition, and as 
they had confined it to general terms, without 
presuming to suggest either a person or a 
time, she would not take offense at their well- 
intended suggestion, but that she had no de- 
sign of ever being maraied. At the corona- 
tion, she was married, she said, to her people, 
and the wedding ring was upon her finger 
still. Her people were the objects of all her 
affection and regard. She should never have 
any other spouse. She said she should be 
well contented to have it engraved upon her 
tomb-stone, "Here lies a queen who lived and 
died a virgin." 



Elizabeth's lovers. 151 

This answer silenced the Commons, but it 
did not settle the question in the public mind. 
Cases often occur of ladies saying very posi- 
tively that they shall never consent to be mar- 
ried, and yet afterward altering their minds; 
and many ladies, knowing how frequently this 
takes place, sagaciously conclude that, what- 
ever secret resolutions they may form, they 
will be silent about them, lest they get into a 
position from which it will be afterward awk- 
ward to retreat. The princes of the Continent 
and the nobles of England paid no regard to 
Elizabeth's declaration, but continued to do 
all in their power to obtain her hand. 

One or two years afterward Elizabeth was 
attacked with the small-pox, and for a time 
was dangerously sick. In fact, for some days 
her life was despaired of, and the country was 
thrown into a great state of confusion and dis- 
may. Parties began to form — the Catholics 
for Mary Queen of Scots, and the Protestants 
for the family of Jane Grey. Every thing por- 
tended a dreadful contest. Elizabeth, how- 
ever, recovered; but the country had been so 
much alarmed at their narrow escape, that 
Parliament ventured once more to address 
the queen on the subject of her marriage. 
They begged that she would either consent to 



152 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

that measure, or, if she was finally determined 
not to do that, that she would cause a law to 
be passed, or an edict to be promulgated, de- 
ciding beforehand who was really to succeed 
to the throne in the event of her decease. 

Elizabeth would not do either. Historians 
have speculated a great deal upon her mo- 
tives ; all that is certain is the fact, she would 
not do either. 

But, though Elizabeth thus resisted all the 
plans formed for giving her a husband, she 
had, in her own court, a famous personal fa- 
vorite, who has always been considered as in 
some sense her lover. His name was origin- 
ally Robert Dudley, though sftie made him 
Earl of Leicester, and he is commonly desig- 
nated in history by this latter name. He was 
a son of the Duke of Northumberland, who 
was the leader of the plot for placing Lady 
Jane Grey upon the throne in the time of 
Mary. He was a very elegant and accomplish- 
ed man, and young, though already married. 
Elizabeth advanced him to high offices and 
honors very early in her reign, and kept him 
much at court. She made 'him her Master of 
Horse, but she did not bestow upon him much 
real power. Cecil was her great counselor 
and minister of state. He was a cool, saga- 



ELIZABETHS LOVERS. I 53 

cious, wary man, entirely devoted to Eliza- 
beth's interests, and to the glory and prosper- 
ity of the realm. He was at this time, as has 
already been stated, forty years of age, thir- 
teen or fourteen years older than Elizabeth. 
Elizabeth showed great sagacity in selecting 
such a minister, and great wisdom in keeping 
him in power so long. He remained in her 
service all his life, and died at last, only a few 
years before Elizabeth, when he was nearly 
eighty years of age. 

Dudley, on the other hand, was just about 
Elizabeth's own age. In fact, it is said by 
some of the chroniclers of the times that he was 
born on the same day and hour with her. 
However this may be, he became a great per- 
sonal favorite, and Elizabeth evinced a degree 
and kind of attachment to him which sub- 
jected her to a great deal of censure and re- 
proach. 

She could not be thinking of him for her 
husband, it would seem, for he was already 
married. Just about this time, however, a 
mysterious circumstance occurred, which pro- 
duced a great deal of excitement, and has ever 
since marked a very important era in the his- 
tory of Leicester and Elizabeth's attachment. 



154 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

It was the sudden and very singular death of 
Leicester's wife. 

Leicester had, among his other estates, a 
lonely mansion in Berkshire, about fifty miles 
west of London. It was called Cumnor 
House. Leicester's wife was sent there, no 
one knew why ; she went under the charge of 
a gentleman who was one of Leicester's de- 
pendents, and entirely devoted to his will. The 
house, too, was occupied by a man who had 
the character of being ready for any deed 
which might be required of him by his master. 
The name of Leicester's wife was Amy Robe- 
sart. 

In a short time news came to London that 
the unhappy woman was killed by a fall down 
stairs ! The instantaneous suspicion darted 
at once into every one's mind that she had 
been murdered. Rumors circulated all around 
the place where the death had occurred that 
she had been murdered. A conscientious 
clergyman of the neighborhood- sent an ac- 
count of the case to London, to the queen's 
ministers, stating the facts, and urging the 
queen to order an investigation of the affair, 
but nothing was ever done. It has according- 
ly been the general belief of mankind since 
that time, that the unprincipled courtier de- 



Elizabeth's lovers. 155 

stroyed his wife in the vain hope of becoming 
afterward the husband of the queen. 

The people of England were greatly incens- 
ed at this transaction. They had hated Lei- 
cester before, and they hated him now more 
inveterately still. Favorites are very gener- 
ally hated ; royal favorites always. He, how- 
ever, grew more and more intimate with the 
queen, and every body feared that he was go- 
ing to be her husband. Their conduct was 
watched very closely by all the great world, 
and, as is usual in such cases, a thousand cir- 
cumstances and occurrences were reported 
busily from tongue to tongue, which the ac- 
tors in them doubtless supposed passed unob- 
served or were forgotten. 

One night, for instance, Queen Elizabeth, 
having supped with Dudley, was going home 
in her chair, lighted by torch-bearers. At the 
present day, all London is lighted brilliantly 
at midnight with gas, and ladies go home 
from their convivial and pleasure assemblies 
in luxurious carriages, in which they are rock- 
ed gently along through broad and magnifi- 
cent avenues, as bright, almost, as day. Then, 
however, it was very different. The lady was 
borne slowly along through narrow, and din- 
gy, and dangerous streets, with a train of 



I56 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

torches before and behind her, dispelling the 
darkness a moment with their glare, and then 
leaving it more deep and somber than ever. 
On the night of which we are speaking, Eliza- 
beth, feeling in good humor, began to talk 
with some of the torch-bearers on the way. 
They were Dudley's men, and Elizabeth be- 
gan to praise their master. She said to one 
of them, among other things, that she was go- 
ing to raise him to a higher position than any 
of his name had ever borne before. Now, as 
Dudley's father was a duke, which title de- 
notes the highest rank of the English nobility, 
the man inferred that the queen's meaning 
was that she intended to marry him, and thus 
make him a sort of king. The man told the 
story boastingly to one of the servants of Lord 
Arundel, who was also a suitor of the queen's. 
The servants, each taking the part of his mas- 
ter in the rivalry, quarreled. Lord Arundel's 
man said that he wished that Dudley had been 
hung with his father, or else that somebody 
would shoot 'him in the street with a dag. A 
dag was, in the language of those days, the 
name for a pistol. 

Time moved on, and though Leicester 
seemed to become more and more a favorite, 
the plan of his being married to Elizabeth, if 



ELIZABETH S LOVERS. I57 

any such were entertained by either party, 
appeared to come no nearer to an accomplish- 
ment. Elizabeth lived in great state and 
splendor, sometimes residing in her palaces 
in or near London, and sometimes making 
royal progresses about Iher dominions. Dudley, 
together with the other prominent members 
of her court, accompanied her on these ex- 
cursions, and obviously enjoyed a very high 
degree of personal favor. She encouraged, at 
the same time, her other suitors, so that on 
all the great public occasions of state, at the 
tilts and tournaments, at the plays — which, 
by-the-way, in those days were performed in 
the churches — on all the royal progresses and 
grand receptions at cities, castles, and univer- 
sities, the lady queen was surrounded always 
by royal or noble beaux, who made her pres- 
ents, and paid her a thousand compliments, 
and offered her gallant attentions without 
number — all prompted by ambition in the 
guise of love. They smiled upon the queen 
with a perpetual sycophancy, and gnashed 
their teeth secretly upon each other with a 
hatred which, unlike the pretended love, was 
at least honest and sincere. Leicester was the 
gayest, most accomplished, and most favored 
of them all, and the rest accordingly com- 



1,58 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

bined and agreed in hating him more than 
they did each other. 

Queen Elizabeth, however, never really ad- 
mitted that she had any design of making Lei- 
cester, or Dudley, as he is indiscriminately 
called, her husband. In fact, at one time she 
recommended him to Mary Queen of Scots 
for a husband. After Mary returned to Scot- 
land, the two queens were, for a time, on 
good terms, as professed friends, though they 
were, in fact, all the time, most inveterate and 
implacable foes; but each, knowing how 
much injury the other might do her, wished to 
avoid exciting any unnecessary hostility. 
Mary, particularly, as she found she could not 
get possession of the English throne during 
Elizabeth's life-time, concluded to try to con- 
ciliate her, in hopes to persuade her to ac- 
knowledge, by act of Parliament, her right to 
the succession after her death. So she used 
to confer with Elizabeth on the subject of her 
own marriage, and to ask her advice about it. 
Elizabeth did not wish to have Mary married 
at all, and so she always proposed somebody 
who she knew would be out of the question. 
She at one time proposed Leicester, and for a 
time seemed quite in earnest about it, especi- 
ally so long as Mary seemed averse to it. At 



ELIZABETH S LOVERS. 1 59 

length, however, when Mary, in order to test 
her sincerity, seemed inclined to yield, Eliza- 
beth retreated in her turn, and withdrew her 
proposals. Mary then gave up the hope of 
satisfying Elizabeth in any way, and married 
Lord Darnley without her consent. 

Elizabeth's regard for Dudley, however, 
still continued. She made him Earl of Lei- 
cester, and granted him the magnificent castle 
of Kenilworth, with a large estate adjoining 
and surrounding it ; the rents of the lands giv- 
ing him a princely income, and enabling him 
to live in almost royal state. Queen Elizabeth 
visited him frequently in this castle. One of 
these visits is very minutely described by the 
chroniclers of the times. The earl made the 
most expensive and extraordinary prepara- 
tions for the reception and entertainment of 
the queen and her retinue on this occasion. 
The moat — which is a broad canal filled with 
water surrounding the castle— had a floating 
island upon it, with a fictitious personage 
whom they called the lady of the lake upon 
the island, who sung a song in praise of Eliza- 
beth as she passed the bridge. There was 
also an artificial dolphin swimming upon the 
water, with a band of musicians within it. As 
the queen advanced across the park, men and 

12— Elizabeth 



l60 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

women, in strange disguises, came out to meet 
her, and to offer her salutations and praises. 
One was dressed as a sibyl, another like an 
American savage, and a third, who was con- 
cealed, represented an echo. This visit was 
continued for nineteen days, and the stories 
of the splendid entertainments provided for 
the company — the plays, the bear-baitings, 
the fireworks, the huntings, the mock fights, 
the feastings and revelries — filled all Europe 
at the time, and have been celebrated by his- 
torians and story-tellers ever since. The Castle 
of Kenilworth is now a very magnificent 
heap of ruins, and is explored every year by 
thousand of visitors from every quarter of the 
globe. 

Leicester, if he ever really entertained any 
serious designs of being Elizabeth's husband, 
at last gave up his hopes, and married another 
woman. This lady had been the wife of the 
Earl of Essex. Her husband died very sud- 
denly and mysteriously just before Leicester 
married her. Leicester kept the marriage se- 
cret for some time, and when it came at last 
to the queen's knowledge she was exceeding- 
ly angry. She had him arrested and sent to 
prison. However, she gradually recovered 



Elizabeth's lovers. 161 

from her fit of resentment, and by degrees re- 
stored him to her favor again. 

Twenty years of Elizabeth's reign thus pass- 
ed away, and no one of all her suitors had 
succeeded in obtaining her hand. All this time 
her government had been administered with 
much efficiency and power. All Europe had 
been in great commotion during almost the 
whole period, on account of the terrible con- 
flicts which were raging between the Catholics 
and the Protestants, each party having been 
doing its utmost to exterminate and destroy 
the other. Elizabeth and her government took 
part, very frequently, in these contests; some- 
times by negotiations and sometimes by fleets 
and armies, but always sagaciously and cau- 
tiously, and generally with great effect. In the 
mean time, however, the queen, being now 
forty-five years of age, was rapidly approach- 
ing the time when questions of marriage 
could no longer be entertained. Her lovers, 
or, rather, her suitors, had, one after another, 
given up the pursuit, and disappeared from 
the field. One only seemed at length to re- 
main, on the decision of whose faite the final 
result of the great question of the queen's mar- 
riage seemed to be pending. 

It was the Duke of Anjou. He was a FrencK 



l62 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

prince. His brother, who had been the Duke 
of Anjou before him, was now King Henry 
III. of France. His own name was Francis. 
He was twenty-five years younger than Eliz- 
abeth and he was only seventeen years of age 
when it was first proposed that he should 
marry her. He was then Duke of Alencon. It 
was his mother's plan. She was the great 
Catharine de Medici, queen of France, and one 
of the most extraordinary women, for her tal- 
ents, her management and her power, that ever 
lived. Having one son upon the throne of 
France, she wanted the throne of England for 
the other. The negotiation had been pending 
fruitlessly for many years, and now, in 1581, 
it was vigorously renewed. The duke, him- 
self, who was at this time a young man of 
twenty-four or five, began to be impatient and 
earnest in his suit. There was, in fact, one 
good reason why he should be so. Elizabeth 
was forty-eight, and, unless the match were 
soon concluded, the time for effecting it would 
be obviously forever gone by. 

He had never had an interview with the 
queen. He had seen pictures of her, however, 
and he sent an embassador over to England 
to urge his suit, and to convince Elizabeth 
how much he was in love with her charms. The 



Elizabeth's lovers. 163 

name of this agent was Simier. He was a 
very polite and accomplished man, and soon 
learned the art of winning his way to Eliza- 
beth's favor. Leicester was very jealous of 
his success. The two favorites soon imbibed 
a terrible enmity for each other. They filled 
the court with their quarrels. The progress of 
the negotiation, however, went on, the people 
taking sides very violently, some for and some 
against the projected marriage. The animos- 
ities became exceedingly virulent, until at 
length Simier's life seemed to be in danger. 
He said that Leicester had hired one of the 
guards to assassinate him ; and it is a fact, that 
one day, as he and the queen, with other at- 
tendants, were making an excursion upon the 
river, a shot was fired from the shore into the 
barge. The shot did no injury except to 
wound one of the oarsmen, and frighten all 
the party pretty thoroughly. Some thought 
the shot was aimed at Simier, and others at 
the queen herself. It was afterward proved, 
or supposed to be proved, that this shot was 
the accidental discharge of a gun, without 
any evil intention whatever. 

In the mean time, Elizabeth grew more and 
more interested in the idea of having the young 
duke for her husband ; and it seemed as if the 



164 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

maidenly resolutions, which had stood their 
ground so firmly for twenty years, were to be 
conquered at last. The more, however, she 
seemed to approach toward a consent to the 
measure, the more did all the officers of her 
government, and the nation at large, oppose 
it. There were, in their minds, two insuper- 
able objections to the match. The candidate 
was a Frenchman, and he was a papist. The 
council interceded. Friends remonstrated. 
The nation murmured and threatened. A book 
was published entitled "The Discovery of a 
gaping Gulf wherein England is like to be 
swallowed up by another French marriage, 
unless the Lord forbid the Bans by letting her 
see the Sin and Punishment thereof." The 
author of it had his right hand cut off, for his 
punishment. 

At length, after a series of most extraordin- 
ary discussions, negotiations, and occurrences, 
which kept the whole country in a state of 
great excitement for a long time, the affair 
was at last all settled. The marriage articles, 
both political and personal, were all arranged. 
The nuptials were to be celebrated in six 
weeks. The duke came over in great state, 
and was received with all possible pomp and 
parade. Festivals and banquets were arrang- 



ELIZABETH'S LOVEBS. 165 

ed without number, and in the most magnifi- 
cent style, to do him and his attendants hon- 
or At one of them, the queen took off a ring 
from her finger, and put it upon his, in the 
presence of a great assembly, which was the 
first announcement to the public that the af- 
fair was finally settled. The news spread every 
where with great rapidity. It produced in 
England great consternation and distress, but 
on the Continent it was welcomed with joy, 
and the great English alliance, now so ob- 
viously approaching, was celebrated with ring- 
ing of bells, bonfires, and grand illuminations. 
And yet, notwithstanding all this, as soon 
as the obstacles were all removed, and there 
was no longer opposition to stimulate the de- 
termination of the queen, her heart failed her 
at last, and she finally concluded that she 
would not be married, after all. She sent for 
the duke one morning to come and see her 
What takes place precisely between lad.es and 
gentlemen when they break off their engage- 
ments is not generally very publicly known, 
but the duke came out from this interview in 
a fit of great vexation and anger. He pulled 
off the queen's ring and threw it from h.m, 
muttering curses upon the fickleness and faith- 
lessness of women. . 



1 66 



QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



Still Elizabeth would not admit that the 
match was broken off. She continued to treat 
the duke with civility and to pay him many 
honors. He decided, however, to return to the 
Continent. She accompanied him a part of 





M ■BL^' ""'•- 




f m 




Mm 






Wf -■&■:. f foL. Mfftrii^ftS- 






V, 










*■" ^*& " '~' ^" 





Catharine de Medici, 
the way to the coast, and took leave of him 
with many professions of sorrow at the part- 
ing, and begged him to come back soon. This 
he promised to do, but he never returned. He 
lived some time afterward in comparative ne- 
glect and obscurity, and mankind considered 
the question of the marriage of Elizabeth as 
now, at last, settled forever. 




CHAPTER IX. 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. 

Mankind have always been very much di- 
vided in opinion in respect to the personal 
character of Queen Elizabeth, but in one point 
all have agreed, and that is, that in the man- 
agement of public affairs she was a woman of 
extraordinary talent and sagacity, combining, 
in a very remarkable degree, a certain cau- 
tious good sense and prudence with the most 
determined resolution an'd energy. 

She reigned about forty years, and during 
almost all that time the whole western part 
of the Continent of Europe was convulsed 
with the most terrible conflicts between the 
Protestant and Catholic parties. The pre- 
dominance of power was with the Catholics, 
and was, of course, hostile to Elizabeth. She 
had, moreover, in the field a very prominent 
competitor for her throne in Mary Queen of 
Scots. The foreign Protestant powers were 
ready to aid this claimant, and there was, be- 
sides, in 'her own dominions a very powerful 

167 



l68 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

interest in her favor. The great divisions 
of sentiment in England, and the energy with 
which each party struggled against its op 
ponents, produced, at all times, a prodigious 
pressure of opposing forces, which bore heav- 
ily upon the safety of the state and of Eliza- 
beth's government, and threatened them with 
continual danger. The administration of pub- 
lic affairs moved on, during all this time, trem- 
bling continually under the heavy shocks 
it was constantly receiving, like a ship stag- 
gering on in a storm, its safety depending on 
the nice equilibrium between the shocks of the 
seas, the pressure of the wind upon the sails, 
and the weight and steadiness of the ballast 
below. 

During all this forty years it is admitted 
that Elizabeth and her wise and sagacious 
ministers managed very admirably. They 
maintained the position and honor of England, 
as a Protestant power, with great success ; and 
the country, during the wriole period, made 
great progress in 'the arts, in commerce, and 
in improvements of every kind. Elizabeth's 
greatest danger, and her greatest source of 
solicitude during her wfaole reign, was from 
the claims of Mary Queen of Scots. We have 
already described the energetic measures 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. 169 

which she took at the commencement of her 
reign to counteract and head off, at the out- 
set, these dangerous pretensions. Though 
these efforts were triumphantly successful at 
the time, still the victory was not final. It 
postponed, but did not destroy, the danger. 
Mary continued to claim the English throne. 
Innumerable plots were beginning to be 
formed among the Catholics, in Elizabeth's 
own dominions, for making her queen. For- 
eign potentates and powers were watching an 
opportunity to assist in these plans. At last 
Mary, on account of internal difficulties in her 
own land, fled across the frontier into Eng- 
land to save her life, and Elizabeth made her 
prisoner. 

In England, to plan or design the dethrone- 
ment of a monarch is, in a subject, high trea- 
son. Mary had undoubtedly designed the de- 
thronement of Elizabeth, and was waiting only 
an opportunity to accomplish it. Elizabeth, 
consequently, condemned her as guilty of trea- 
son, in effect; and Mary's sole defense against 
this charge was that she was not a subjeot. 
Elizabeth yielded to this plea, when she first 
found Mary in her power, so far as not to take 
her life, but she consigned her to a long and 
weary captivity. 



170 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

This, however, only made the matter worse. 
It stimulated the enthusiasm and zeal of all the 
Catholics in England, to have their leader, 
and, as they believed, their rightful queen, a 
captive in the midst of them, and they formed 
continually the most extensive and most dan- 
gerous plots. These plots were discovered and 
suppressed, one after another, each one pro- 
ducing more anxiety and alarm than the pre- 
ceding. For a time Alary suffered no evil con- 
sequences from these discoveries further than 
an increase of the rigors of her confinement. 
At last the patience of the queen and of her 
government was exhausted. A law was pas- 
sed against treason, expressed in such terms 
as to include Mary in the liability for its dread- 
ful penalties although she was not a subject, 
in case of any new transgression; and when 
the next case occurred, they brought 'her to 
trial and condemned her to death. The sen- 
tence was executed in the gloomy castle of 
Fotheringay, where she was then confined. 

As to the question whether Mary or Eliza- 
beth had the rightful title to the English 
crown, it has not only never been settled, but 
from its very nature it cannot be settled. It 
is one of those cases in which a peculiar con- 
tingency occurs which runs beyond the scope 




Elizabeth, face p. HO 

Elizabeth Signing the Death Warrant of Mary, 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. I7 1 

and reach of all the ordinary principles by 
which analogous cases are tried, and leads to 
questions which can not be decided. As long 
as a hereditary succession goes smoothly on, 
like a river keeping within its banks, we can 
decide subordinate and incidental questions 
Which may arise; but when a case occurs in 
which we have the omnipotence of Parlia- 
ment to set off against the infallibility of the 
pope — the sacred obligations of a will against 
the equally sacred principles of hereditary 
succession — and when we have at last, two 
contradictory actions of the same ultimate 
umpire, we find all technical grounds of com- 
ing to a conclusion gone. We then, abandon- 
ing these, seek for some higher and more 
universal principles — essential in the nature 
of things, and thus independent of the will 
and action of man— to see if they will throw 
any light on the subject. But we soon find 
ourselves as much perplexed and confounded 
in this inquiry as we were before. We ask, 
in beginning the investigation, What is the 
ground and nature of the right by which any 
king or queen succeeds to the power possessed 
by his ancestors? And we give up in despair, 
not being able to answer even this first pre' 
liminary inquiry. 



1J2 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Mankind have not, in their estimate of Eliz- 
abeth's character, condemned so decidedly the 
substantial acts which she performed, as the 
duplicity, the false-heartedness, and the false 
pretensions which she manifested in perform- 
ing them. Had she said frankly and openly 
to Mary before the world, If these schemes 
for revolutionizing England and placing your- 
self upon the throne continue, your life must 
be forfeited; my own safety and the safety of 
the realm absolutely demand it; and then had 
fairly, and openly, and honestly executed her 
threat, mankind would have been silent on 
the subject, if they had not been satisfied. 
But if she had really acted thus, she would 
not have 'been Elizabeth. She, in fact, pur- 
sued a very different course. She maneuv- 
ered, schemed, and planned; she pretended to 
be full of the warmest affection for her cousin ; 
she contrived plot after plot, and scheme 
after scheme, to ensnare her ; and when, 
at last the execution took place, in obedi- 
ence to her own formal and written authority, 
she pretended to great astonishment and rage. 
She never meant that the sentence should take 
effect. She filled England, France, and Scot- 
land with the loud expressions of her regret, 
and she punished the agents who had executed 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. 1 73 

her will. This management was to prevent 
the friends of Mary from forming plans of 
revenge. 

This was her character in all things. She 
was famous for her false pretensions and 
double dealings, and yet, with all her talents 
and sagacity, the disguise she assumed was 
sometimes so thin and transparent that her as- 
suming it was simply ridiculous- 
Maiden ladies, who spend their lives, in 
some respects, alone, often become deeply 
imbued with a kind and benevolent spirit, 
which seeks its gratification in relieving the 
pains and promoting the happiness of all 
around them. Conscious that the circum- 
stances which have caused them to lead a 
single life would secure for them the sincere 
sympathy and the increased esteem of all who 
know them, if delicacy and propriety allowed 
them to be expressed, they feel a strong de- 
gree of self-respect, they live happily, and are 
a continual means of comfort and joy to all 
around them. This was not so, however, with 
Elizabeth. She was jealous, petulant, irri- 
table. She envied others the love and the do- 
mestic enjoyments which ambition forbade her 
to share, and she seemed to take great pleasure 

13— Elizabeth 



174 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

in thwarting and interfering with the plans 
of others for securing this happiness. 

One remarkable instance of this kind oc- 
curred. It seems 'that she was sometimes ac- 
customed to ask the young ladies of the court 
— her maids of honor — if they ever thought 
about being married and t'hey, being cunning 
enough to know what sort of an answer would 
please the queen, always promptly denied that 
they did so. Oh no ! they never thought about 
being married at all. There was one young 
lady, however, artless and sincere, who, when 
questioned in this way, answered, in her sim- 
plicity, that she often thought of it, and that 
s'he should like to be married very much, if 
her father would only consent to her union 
with a certain gentleman whom she loved. 
"Ah!" said Elizabeth; "well, I will speak to 
your father about it, and see what I can do." 
Not long after this the father of the young 
lady came to court, and the queen proposed 
tfhe subject to him. The father said that he 
had not been aware that his daughter had 
formed such an attachment, out that he should 
certainly give his consent, without any hesi- 
tation, to any arrangement of that kind which 
the queen desired and advised. 'That is all, 
then," said the queen; "I will do the rest." 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. 175 

So she called the young lady into her presence, 
and told her that her father had given his free 
consent. The maiden's heart bounded with 
joy, and she began to express her happiness 
and her gratitude to the queen, promising to 
do everything in her power to please her, when 
Elizabeth interrupted her, saying, "Yes, you 
will act so as to please me, I have no doubt, 
but you are not going to be a fool and get 
married. Your fa'fher has given his consent 
to me, and not to you, and you may rely upon 
it you will never get it out of my possession. 
You were pretty bold to acknowledge your 
foolishness to me so readily." 

Elizabeth was very irritable, and could 
never bear any contradiction. In the case even 
of Leicester, who 'had such an unbounded in- 
fluence over her, if he presumed a little too 
much he would meet sometimes a very severe 
rebuff, sudh as nobody but a courtier would 
endure; but courtiers, haughty and arrogant 
as they are in their bearing toward inferiors, 
are generally fawning sycophants toward those 
albove them, and they will submit to any thing 
imaginable from a queen. 

It was the custom in Elizabeth's days, as it 
is now among the great in European countries, 
to have a series or suite of rooms, one beyond 



I76 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

the other, the inner one being the presence 
chamber, and the others being occupied by at- 
tendants and servants of various grades, to 
regulate and control the admission of com- 
pany. Some of these officers were styled gen- 
tlemen of the black rod, that name being de- 
rived from a peculiar badge of authority 
which they were accustomed to carry. It 
happened, one day, that a certain gay captain, 
a follower of Leicester's and a sort of favorite 
of his, was stopped in the antechamber by one 
of the gentlemen of the black rod, named 
Bowyer, the queen having ordered him to be 
more careful and particular in respect to the 
admission of company. The captain, who 
was proud of the favor which he enjoyed with 
Leicester, resented this affront, and threatened 
the officer, and be was engaged in an alterca- 
tion with 'him on the subject when Leicester 
came in. Leicester took his favorite's part, 
and told the gentleman usher t'hat he was a 
knave, 'and that he would have him turned out 
of office. Leicester was accustomed to feel 
so much confidence in his power over Eilza- 
beth, that his manner toward all beneath him 
had become exceedingly haughty and over- 
bearing. He supposed, probably, that the of- 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. I77 

ficer would humble himself at once before his 
rebukes 

The officer, however, instead of this, stepped 
directly in before Leicester, who was then go- 
ing in himself to the presence of the queen ; 
kneeled before her majesty, related the facts 
of the case, and humbly asked what it was 
her pleasure that he should do. He had obeyed 
her majesty's orders, he said, and had been 
called imperiously to account for it, and threat- 
ened violently by Leicester, and he wished 
now to know whether Leicester was king or 
her majesty queen. Elizabeth was very much 
displeased with the conduct of her favorite. 
She turned to him, and, beginning with a sort 
of oath which she was accustomed to use when 
irritated and angry, she addressed him in in- 
vectives and reproaches the most severe. She 
gave him, in a word, what would be called a 
scolding, were it not that scolding is a term 
not sufficiently dignified for history, even for 
such humble history as this. She told him 
that she had indeed shown 'him favor, but her 
favor was not so fixed and settled upon him 
that nobody else was to have any share, and 
that if he imagined that he could lord it over 
her household, she would contrive a way very 
soon to convince him of his mistake. There 



I78 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

was one mistress to rule there, she said, but 
no master. She then dismissed Bowyer, tell- 
ing Leicester that, if any evil happened to him, 
she should hold him, that is, Leicester, to a 
strict account for it, as she should be con- 
vinced it would have come through his means. 

Leicester was exceedingly chagrined at this 
result of the difficulty. Of course he dared 
not defend himself or reply. All the other 
courtiers enjoyed his confusion very highly, 
and one of them, in giving an account of the 
affair, said, in conclusion, that "the queen's 
words so quelled him, that, for some time af- 
ter, his feigned humility was one of his best 
virtues." 

Queen Elizabeth very evidently possessed 
that peculiar combination of quickness of in- 
tellect and readiness of tongue which enables 
those who possess it to say very sharp and bit- 
ter things, when vexed or out of humor. It is 
a brilliant talent, though it always makes those 
who possess it hated and feared. Elizabeth 
was often wantonly cruel in the exercise of 
this satirical power, considering very little — 
as is usually the case with such persons — the 
justice of her invectives, but obeying blindly 
the impulses of the ill nature which prompted 
her to utter them. We have already said that 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. 179 

she seemed always to have a special feeling of 
ill will against marriage and every thing that 
pertained to it, and she had, particularly, a 
theory that the bishops and the clergy ought 
not to be married. She could not absolutely 
prohibit their marrying, but she did issue an in- 
junction forbidding any of the heads of the col- 
leges or cathedrals to take their wives into the 
same, or any of their precincts. At one time, 
in one of her royal progresses through the 
country, she was received, and very magnifi- 
cently and hospitably entertained, by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, at his palace. The 
archbishop's wife exerted herself very partic- 
ularly to please the queen and to do her honor. 
Elizabeth evinced her gratitude by turning to 
her, as she was about to take her leave, and 
saying that she could not call her the arch- 
bishop's wife, and did not like to call her his 
mistress, and so she did not know what to call 
her ; but that, at all events, she was very much 
obliged to her for her hospitality. 

Elizabeth's highest officers of state were 
continually exposed to her sharp and sudden 
reproaches, and they often incurred them by 
sincere and honest efforts to gratify and serve 
her. She had made an arrangement, one day, 
to go into the city of London to St. Paul's 



l80 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Church, to hear the Dean of Christ Church, a' 
distinguished clergyman, preach. The dean 
procured a copy of the Prayer Book, and had 
it splendidly bound, with a great number of 
beautiful and costly prints interleaved in it. 
These prints were all of a religious character, 
being representations of sacred history, or of 
scenes in the lives of the saints. The volume, 
thus prepared, was very beautiful, and it was 
placed, when the Sabbath morning arrived, 
upon the queen's cushion at the church, ready 
for her use. The queen entered in great 
state, and took her seat in the midst of all the 
parade and ceremony customary on such oc- 
casions. As soon, however, as she opened the 
book and saw the pictures, she frowned, and 
seemed to be much displeased. She shut the 
book and put it away, and called for her own ; 
and, after the service, she sent for the dean, 
and asked him who brought that book there. 
He replied, in a very humble and submissive 
manner, that he had procured it himself, hav- 
ing intended it as a present for her majesty. 
This only produced fresh expressions of dis- 
pleasure. She proceeded <o rebuke him se- 
verely for countenancing such a popish prac- 
tice as the introduction of pictures in the 
churches. All this time Elizabeth had herself 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. l8l 

a crucifix in her own private chapel, and the 
dean himself, on the other hand, was a firm 
and consistent Protestant, entirely opposed to 
the Catholic system of images and pictures, 
as Elizabeth very well knew. 

This sort of roughness was a somewhat 
masculine trait of character for a lady, it 
must be acknowledged, and not a very agree- 
able one, even in man ; but with some of the 
bad qualities of the other sex, Elizabeth pos- 
sessed, also, some that were very good. She 
was courageous, and she evinced her courage 
sometimes in a very noble manner. At one 
time, when political excitement ran very high, 
her friends thought that there was serious dan- 
ger in her appearing openly in public, and 
tihey urged her not to do it, but to confine her- 
self within her palaces for a time, until the ex- 
citement should pass away. But no; the rep- 
resentations made to her produced no effect. 
She said she would continue to go out just as 
freely as ever. She did not think that there 
was really any danger; and besides, if there 
was, she did not care ; she would rather take 
her chance of being killed than to be kept 
shut up like a prisoner. 

At the time, too, when the shot was fired at 
the barge in which she was going down the 



l82 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Thames, many of her ministers thought it 
was aimed at her. They endeavored to con- 
vince her of this, and urged her not to expose 
herself to such dangers. She replied that she 
did not believe that the shot was aimed at her ; 
and that, in fact, she would not believe any 
thing of her subjects which a father would not 
be willing to believe of his own children. So 
she went on sailing in her barge just as before. 
Elizabeth was very vain of her beauty, 
though unfortunately, she 'had very little beau- 
ty to be vain of. Nothing pleased her so much 
as compliments. She sometimes almost ex- 
acted them. At one time, when a distin- 
guished embassador from Mary Queen of 
Scots was at her court, she insisted on his tell- 
ing her whether she or Mary was the mosv 
beautiful. When we consider that Elizabeth 
was at this time over thirty years of age, and 
Mary only twenty-two, and that the fame of 
Mary's loveliness had filled the world, it must 
be admitted that this question indicated a con- 
siderable degree of self-complacency. The 
embassador had the prudence to attempt to 
evade the inquiry. He said at first that they 
were both beautiful enough. But Elizabeth 
wanted to know, she said, which was most 
beautiful. The embassador then said that his 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. 



183 



queen was the most beautiful queen in Scot- 
land and Elizabeth in England. Elizabeth was 
not satisfied with this, but insisted on a defin- 
ite answer to the question; and the embassa- 
dor said at last that Elizabeth had the fairest 
complexion, though Mary was considered a 
very lovely woman. Elizabeth then wanted to 
know which was the tallest of the two. The 
embassador said that Mary was. "Then," said 
Elizabeth, "she is too tall, for I am just of the 
right height myself." 

At one time during Elizabeth's reign, the 
people took a fancy to engrave and print por- 
traits of her, which, being perhaps tolerably 
faithful to the original, were not very alluring. 
The queen was much vexed at the circulation 
of these prints, and finally she caused a grave 
and formal proclamation to be issued against 
them. In this proclamation it was stated that 
it was the intention of the queen, at some fu- 
ture time, to have a proper artist employed to 
execute a correct and true portrait of herself, 
which should then be published ; and, in the 
mean time, all persons were forbidden to make 
or sell any representations of her whatever. 

Elizabeth was extremely fond of pomp and 
parade. The magnificence and splendor of the 
celebrations and festivities Which characteriz- 



184 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

ed her reign have scarcely ever been surpassed 
in any country or in any age. She once went 
to attend Church, on a particular occasion, ac- 
companied by a thousand men in full armor 
of steel, and ten pieces of cannon, with drums 
and trumpets sounding. She received her for- 
eign embassadors with military spectacles and 
shows, and with banquets and parties of pleas- 
ure, which for many days kept all London in 
a fever of excitement. Sometimes she made 
excursions on the river, with whole fleets of 
boats and barges in her train ; the shores, on 
such occasions, swarming with spectators, and 
waving with flags and banners. Sometimes 
she would make grand progresses through her 
dominions, followed by an army of attendants 
— lords and ladies dressed and mounted in the 
most costly manner — and putting the nobles 
whose seats she visited to a vast expense in 
entertaining such a crowd of visitors. Being 
very saving of her own means, she generally 
contrived to bring the expense of this magnifi- 
cence upon others. The honor was a sufficient 
equivalent. Or, if it was not, nobody dared to 
complain. 

To sum up all, Elizabeth was very great, 
and she was, at the same time, very little. Lit- 
tleness and greatness mingled in her character 



PERSONAL CHARACTER. 



185 



in a manner which has scarcely ever been par- 
alleled, except by the equally singular mixture 
of admiration and contempt with which man- 
kind have always regarded her. 




State Progress of Elizabeth. 




CHAPTER X. 

THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 

Thirty years of Elizabeth's reign passed 
away. During all this time the murderous con- 
tests between the Catholic governments of 
France and Spain and their Protestant sub- 
jects went on with terrible energy. Philip of 
Spain was the great leader and head of the 
Catholic powers, and he prosecuted his work 
of exterminating heresy with the sternest and 
most merciless determination. Obstinate and 
protracted wars, cruel tortures, and imprison- 
ments and executions without number, marked 
his reign. 

Notwithstanding all this, however, strange 
as it may seem, the country increased in pop- 
ulation, wealth, and prosperity. It is, after all, 
but a very small proportion of fifty millions 
of people which the most cruel monster of a 
tyrant can kill, even if he devotes himself fully 
to the work. The natural deaths among the 
vast population within the reach of Philip's 

power amounted, probably, to two millions 
186 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 187 

every year ; and if he destroyed ten thousand 
every year, it was only adding one death by 
violence to two hundred produced by acci- 
dents, disasters, or age. Dreadful as are the 
atrocities of persecution and war, and vast and 
incalculable as are the encroachments on hu- 
man happiness which they produce, we are of- 
ten led to overrate their relative importance, 
compared with the aggregate value of the in- 
terests and pursuits which are left unharmed 
by them, by not sufficiently appreciating the 
enormous extent and magnitude of these in- 
terests and pursuits in such communities as 
England, France, and Spain. 

Sometimes, it is true, the operations of mil- 
itary heroes have been on such a prodigious 
scale as to make very serious inroads on the 
population of the greatest states. Napoleon 
for instance, on one occasion took five hun- 
dred thousand men out of France for his ex- 
pedition to Russia. The campaign destroyed 
nearly all of them. It was only a very insig- 
nificant fraction of the vast army that ever re- 
turned. By this transaction, Napoleon thus 
just about doubled the annual mortality in 
France at a single blow. Xerxes enjoys the 
glory of having destroyed about a million of 
men— and these, not enemies, but country- 



l88 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

men, followers, and friends — in the same way, 
on a single expedition. Such vast results, 
however, were not attained in the conflicts 
Which marked the reigns of Elizabeth and 
Philip of Spain. Notwithstanding the long- 
protracted international wars, and dreadful 
civil commotions of the period, the world went 
on increasing in wealth and population, and 
all the arts and improvements of life made 
very rapid progress. America had been dis- 
covered, and the way to the East Indies had 
been opened to European ships, and the Span- 
iards, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English, 
and the French had fleets of merchant vessels 
and ships of war in every sea. The Spaniards, 
particularly, had acquired great possessions in 
America, which contained very rich mines of 
gold and silver, and there was a particular 
kind of vessels called galleons, which went 
regularly once a year, under a strong convoy, 
to bring home the treasure. They used to call 
these fleets armadas, which is the Spanish 
word denoting an armed squadron. Nations 
at war with Spain always made great efforts 
to intercept and seize these ships on their 
homeward voyages, when, being laden with 
gold and silver, they became prizes of the 
highest value. 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 189 

Things were in this state about the year 
1585, when Queen Elizabeth received a propo- 
sition from the Continent of Europe which 
threw her into great perplexity. Among the 
other dominions of Philip of Spain, there were 
certain states situated in the broad tract of 
low, level land which lies northeast of France, 
and which constitutes, at the present day, the 
countries of Holland and Belgium. This ter- 
ritory was then divided into several provinces, 
which were called, usually, the Low Countries, 
on account of the low and level situation of 
the land. In fact, there are vast tracts of land 
bordering the shore, which lie so low that dikes 
have to be built to keep out the sea. In these 
cases, there are lines of windmills, of great 
size and power, all along the coast, whose vast 
wings are always slowly revolving, to pump 
out the water which percolates through the 
dikes, or which flows from the water- 
courses after showers of rain. 

The Low Countries were very unwilling to 
submit to the tyrannical government which 
Philip exercised over them. The inhabitants 
were generally Protestants, and Philip perse- 
cuted them cruelly. They were, in consequence 
of this, continually rebelling against his au- 
thority, and Elizabeth secretly aided them in 

14— Elizabeth 



IQO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

these struggles, though she would not optnly 
assist them, as she did not wish to provoke 
Philip to open war. She wished them success, 
however, for she knew very well that if Philip 
could once subdue his Protestant subjects at 
home, he would immediately turn his attention 
to England, and perhaps undertake to depose 
Elizabeth, and place some Catholic prince or 
princess upon the throne in her stead. 

Things were in this state in 1585, when the 
confederate provinces of the Low Countries 
sent an embassage to Elizabeth, offering her 
the government of the country as sovereign 
queen, if she would openly espouse their cause 
and protect them from Philip's power. This 
proposition called for very serious and anxious 
consideration. Elizabeth felt very desirous to 
make this addition to her dominions on its 
own account, and besides, she saw at once that 
such an acquisition would give her a great ad- 
vantage in her future contests with Philip, if 
actual war must come. But then, on the other 
hand, by accepting the proposition, war must 
necessarily be brought on at once. Philip 
would, in fact, consider her espousing the 
cause of his rebellious subjects as an actual 
declaration of war on her part, so that making 
such a league with these countries would 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. I9I 

plunge her at once into hostilities with the 
greatest and most extended power on the 
globe. Elizabeth was very unwilling thus to 
precipitate the contest ; but then, on the other 
hand, she wished very much to avoid the dan- 
ger that threatened, of Philip's first subduing 
his own dominions, and then advancing to the 
invasion of England with his undivided 
strength. She finally concluded not to accept 
the sovereignty of the countries, but to make 
a league, offensive and defensive, with the gov- 
ernments, and to send out a fleet and an army 
to aid them. This, as she had expected, 
brought on a general war. 

The queen commissioned Leicester to take 
command of the forces which were to proceed 
to Holland and the Netherlands ; she also 
equipped a fleet, and placed it under the com- 
mand of Sir Francis Drake, a very celebrated 
naval captain, to proceed across the Atlantic 
and attack the Spanish possessions on the Am- 
erican shores. Leicester was extremely elated 
with his appointment, and set off on his expe- 
dition with great pomp and parade. He had 
not generally, during his life, held stations of 
any great trust or responsibility. The queen 
had conferred upon him high titles and vast 
estates, but she had confided all real power to 



IQ2 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

far more capable and trustworthy hands. She 
thought, however, perhaps, that Leicester 
would answer for her allies; so she gave him 
his commission and sent him forth, charging 
him, with many injunctions, as he went away, 
to be discreet and faithful, and to do nothing 
which should compromise, in any way, her in- 
terests or honor. 

It will, perhaps, be recollected that Leices- 
ter's wife had been, before her marriage with 
him, the wife of a nobleman named the Earl 
of Essex. She had a son, who, at his father's 
death, succeeded to the title. This young Es- 
sex accompanied Leicester on this occasion. 
His subsequent adventures, which were ro- 
mantic and extraordinary, will be narrated in 
the next chapter. 

The people of the Netherlands, being ex- 
tremely desirous to please Elizabeth, their 
new ally, thought that they could not honor 
the great general she had sent them too high- 
ly. They received him with most magnificent 
military parades, and passed a vote in their as- 
sembly investing him with absolute authority 
as head of the government, thus putting him, 
in fact, in the very position which Elizabeth 
had herself declined receiving. Leicester was 
extremely pleased and elated with these hon- 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 193 

ors. He was king all but in name. He pro- 
vided himself with a noble life-guard, in imita- 
tion of royalty, and assumed all the state and 
airs of a monarch. Things went on so very 
prosperously with him for a short time, until 
he was one day thunderstruck by the appear- 
ance at his palace of a nobleman from the 
queen's court, named Heneage, who brought 
him a letter from Elizabeth, which was in sub- 
stance as follows: 

"How foolishly, and with what contempt of 
my authority, I think you have acted, the mes- 
senger I now send to you will explain. I 
little imagined that a man whom I had raised 
from the dust, and treated with so much favor, 
would have forgotten all his obligations, and 
acted in such a manner. I command you now 
to put yourself entirely under the direction of 
this messenger, to do in all things precisely as 
he requires, upon pain of further peril." 

Leicester humbled himself immediately uo 
der this rebuke, sent home most ample apol- 
ogies and prayers for forgiveness, and, after a 
time, gradually recovered the favor of the 
queen. He soon, however, became very un- 
popular in the Netherlands. Grievous com- 



194 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

plaints were made against him, and he was at 
length recalled. 

Drake was more successful. He was a bold, 
undaunted, and energetic seaman, but unprin- 
cipled and merciless. He manned and equip- 
ped his fleet, and set sail toward the Spanish 
possessions in America. He attacked the col- 
onies, sacked the towns, plundered the inhab- 
itants, intercepted the ships, and searched them 
for silver and gold. In a word, he did exactly 
what pirates are hung for doing, and ex- 
ecrated afterward by all mankind. But, as 
Queen Elizabeth gave him permission to per- 
form these exploits, he has always been ap- 
plauded by mankind as a hero. We would not 
be understood as denying that there is any dif- 
ference between burning and plundering inno- 
cent towns and robbing ships, whether there 
is or is not a governmental permission to com- 
mit these crimes. There certainly is a differ- 
ence. It only seems to us surprising that there 
should be so great a difference as is made by 
the general estimation of mankind. 

Drake, in fact, had acquired a great and 
honorable celebrity for such deeds before this 
time, by a similar expedition, several years be- 
fore, in which he had been driven to make the 
circumnavigation of the globe. England and 




Elizabeth, face p. m 



Sir Francis Drake. 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. I95 

Spain were then nominally at peace, and the 
expedition was really in pursuit of prizes and 
plunder. 

Drake took five vessels with him on this his 
first expedition, but they were all very small. 
The largest was only a vessel of one hundred 
tons, while the ships which are now built are 
often of three thousand. With this little fleet 
Drake set sail boldly, and crossed the Atlan- 
tic, being fifty-five days out of sight of land. 
He arrived at last on the coast of South Am- 
erica, and then turned his course southward, 
toward the Straits of Magellan. Two of his 
vessels, he found, were so small as to be of 
very little service ; so he shipped the men on 
board the others, and turned the two adrift. 
When he got well into the southern seas, he 
charged his chief mate, whose name was 
Doughty, with some offense against the dis- 
cipline of his little fleet, and had him con- 
demned to death. He was executed at the 
Straits of Magellan — beheaded. Before he 
died, the unhappy convict had the sacrament 
administered to him, Drake himself partaking 
of it with him. It was said, and believed at 
the time, that the charge against Doughty was 
only a pretense, and that the real cause of 
his death was, that Leicester had agreed with 



I96 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Drake to kill him when far away, on account 
of his having assisted with others, in spread- 
ing the reports that Leicester had murdered 
the Earl of Essex, the former husband of his 
wife. 

The little squadron passed through the 
Straits of Magellan, and then encountered a 
dreadful storm, which separated the ships, and 
drove them several hundred miles to the west- 
ward, over the then boundless and trackless 
waters of the Pacific Ocean. Drake himself 
afterward recovered the shore with his own 
ship alone, and moved northward. He found 
Spanish ships and Spanish merchants every 
where, who, not dreaming of the presence of 
an English enemy in those distant seas, were 
entirely secure; and they fell, one after an- 
other, a very easy prey. The very extraodin- 
ary story is told of his finding, in one place, a 
Spaniard asleep upon the shore, waiting per- 
haps, for a boat, with thirty bars of silver by 
his side, of great weight and value, which 
Drake and his men seized and carried off, 
without so much as waking the owner. In one 
harbor which he entered he found three ships, 
from which the seamen had all gone 
ashore, leaving the vessels completely 
unguarded, so entirely unconscious were 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. I97 

they of any danger near. Drake broke 
into the cabins of these ships, and 
found fifty or sixty wedges of pure silver 
there, of twenty pounds each. In this way, as 
he passed along the coast, he collected an im- 
mense treasure in silver and gold, both coin 
and bullion, without having to strike a blow 
for it. At last he heard of a very rich ship, 
called the Cacofogo, which had recently sailed 
for Panama, to which place they were taking 
the treasure, in order that it might be trans- 
ported across the isthmus, and so taken home 
to Spain ; for, before Drake's voyage, scarcely 
a single vessel had ever passed round Cape 
Horn. The ships which he had plundered had 
been all built upon the coast, by Spaniards 
who had come across the country at the isth- 
mus of Darien, and were to be used only to 
transport the treasure northward, where it 
could be taken across to the Gulf of Mexico. 
Drake gave chase to the Cacofogo. At last 
he came near enough to fire into her, and one 
of his first shots cut away her foremast and 
disabled her. He soon captured the ship, and 
he found immense riches on board. Besides 
pearls and precious stones of great value, there 
were eighty pounds of gold, thirteen chests of 



I98 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

silver coin, and silver enough in bars "to bal- 
last a ship." 

Drake's vessel was now richly laden with 
treasures, but in the mean time the news of 
his plunderings had gone across the Contin- 
ent, and some Spanish ships of war had gone 
south to intercept him at the Straits of Magel- 
lan on his return. In this dilemma, the ad- 
venturous sailor conceived of the sublime idea 
of avoiding them by going round the world to 
get home. He pushed boldly forward, there- 
fore, across the Pacific Ocean to the East In- 
dies, thence through the Indian Ocean to the 
Cape of Good Hope, and, after three years 
from the time he left England, he returned to 
it safely again, his ship loaded with the plun- 
dered silver and gold. 

As soon as he arrived in the Thames, the 
whole world flocked to see the little ship that 
had performed all these wonders. The vessel 
was drawn up alongside the land, and a bridge 
made to it, and, after the treasure was taken 
out, it was given up, for some time, to ban- 
quetings and celebrations of every kind. The 
queen took possession of all the treasure, say- 
ing that Philip might demand it, and she be 
forced to make restitution, for it must be re- 
membered that all this took place several years 




Elizabeth., jace p. i98 



Drake's Return to England. 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 199 

before the war. She, however, treated the suc- 
cessful sailor with every mark of consider- 
ation and honor ; she went herself on board his 
ship, and partook of an entertainment there, 
conferring the honor of knighthood, at the 
same time, on the admiral, so that "Sir Fran- 
cis Drake" was thenceforth his proper title. 

If the facts already stated do not give suffi- 
cient indications of the kind of character which 
in those days made a naval hero, one other cir- 
cumstance may be added. At one time during 
this voyage, a Spaniard, whose ship Drake 
had spared, made him a present of a beautiful 
negro girl. Drake kept her on board his ship 
for a time, and then sent her ashore on some 
island that he was passing, and inhumanly 
abandoned her there, to become a mother 
among strangers, utterly friendless and alone. 
It must be added, however, in justice to the 
rude men among whom this wild bucaneer 
lived, that, though they praised all his other 
deeds of violence and wrong, this atrocious 
cruelty was condemned. It had the effect, 
even in those days, of tarnishing his fame. 

Philip did claim the money, but Elizabeth 
found plenty of good excuses for not paying 
it over to him. 

This celebrated expedition occupied more 



200 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

than three years. Going round the world is a 
long journey. The arrival of the ship in Lon- 
don took place in 1581, four years before the 
war actually broke out between England and 
Spain, which was in 1585; and it was in con- 
sequence of the great celebrity which Drake 
had acquired in this and similar excursions, 
that when at last hostilities commenced, he 
was put in command of the naval preparations. 
It was not long before it was found that his 
services were likely to be required near home, 
for rumors began to find their way to Eng- 
land that Philip was preparing a great fleet 
for the actual invasion of England. The news 
put the whole country into a state of great 
alarm. 

The reader, in order to understand fully the 
grounds for this alarm must remember that in 
those days Spain was the mistress of the 
ocean, and not England herself. Spain pos- 
sessed the distant colonies and the foreign 
commerce, and built and armed the great 
ships, while England had comparatively few 
ships, and those which she had were small. 
To meet the formidable preparations which 
the Spaniards were making, Elizabeth equip- 
ped only four ships. To these, however, the 
merchants of London added twenty or thirty 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 201 

more, of various sizes, which they furnished 
on condition of having a share in the plundei 
which they hoped would be secured. The 
whole fleet was put under Drake's command. 
Robbers and murderers, whether those that 
operate upon the sea or on the land, are gen- 
erally courageous, and Drake's former success 
had made him feel doubly confident and 
strong. Philip had collected a considerable 
fleet of ships in Cadiz, which is a strong sea- 
port in the southeastern part of Spain, on the 
Mediterranean Sea, and others were assem- 
bling in all the ports and bays along the shore, 
wherever they could be built or purchased. 
They were to rendezvous finally at Cadiz. 
Drake pushed boldly forward, and, to the as- 
tonishment of the world, forced his way into 
the harbor, through a squadron of galleys 
stationed there to protect the entrance, and 
burned, sunk, and destroyed more than a hun- 
dred ships which had been collected there. 
The whole work was done, and the little Eng- 
lish fleet was off again, before the Spaniards 
could recover from their astonishment. Drake 
then sailed along the coast, seizing and de- 
stroying all the ships he could find. He next 
pushed to sea a little way, and had the good 
fortune to intercept and capture a richly-laden 

1 5— Elizabeth 



202 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

ship of very large size, called a carrack, which' 
was coming home from the East Indies. He 
then went back to England in triumph. He 
said he had been "singeing the whiskers" of 
the King of Spain. 

The booty was divided among the London 
merchants, as had been agreed upon. Philip 
was exasperated and enraged beyond expres- 
sion at this unexpected destruction of arma- 
ments which had cost him so much time and 
money to prepare. His spirit was irritated 
and aroused by the disaster, not quelled ; and 
he immediately began to renew his prepara- 
tions, making them now on a still vaster scale 
than before. The amount of damage which 
Drake effected was, therefore, after all, of no 
greater benefit to England than putting back 
the invasion for about a year. 

At length, in the summer of 1588, the prep- 
arations for the sailing of the great armada, 
which was to dethrone Elizabeth and bring 
back the English nation again under the do- 
minion of some papal prince, and put down, 
finally, the cause of Protestantism in Europe, 
were complete. Elizabeth herself, and the 
English people, in the meantime, had not been 
idle. The whole kingdom had been for 
months filled with enthusiasm to prepare for 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 203 

meeting the foe. Armies were levied and fleets 
raised. Every maritime town furnished 
ships ; and rich noblemen, in many cases, built 
or purchased vessels with their own funds, 
and sent them forward ready for the battle, as 
their contribution toward the means of de- 
fense. A large part of the force thus raised 
was stationed at Plymouth, which is the first 
great sea-port which presents itself on the 
English coast in sailing up the Channel. The 
remainder of it was stationed at the other end 
of the Channel, near the Straits of Dover, for 
it was feared that, in addition to the vast ar- 
mament which Philip was to bring from 
Spain, he would raise another fleet in the 
Netherlands, which would, of course, ap- 
proach the shores of England from the Ger- 
man Ocean. 

Besides the fleets, a large army was raised. 
Twenty thousand men were distributed along 
the southern shores of England in such posi- 
tions as to be most easily concentrated at any 
point where the armada might attempt to 
land and about as many more were marched 
down the Thames, and encamped near the 
mouth of the river, to guard that access. 
This encampment was at a place on the north- 
ern bank of the river, just above its mouth. 



204 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Leicester, strange as it may seem, was put in 
command of this army. The queen, how- 
ever, herself, went to visit this encampment, 
and reviewed the troops in person. She rode 
to and fro on horseback along the lines, armed 
like a warrior. At least she had a corslet of 
polished steel over her magnificent dress, and 
bore a general's truncheon, a richly-orna- 
mented staff used as a badge of command. 
She had a helmet, too, with a white plume. 
This, however, she did not wear. A page 
bore it, following her, while she rode, attended 
by Leicester and the other generals, all mount- 
ed on horses and splendidly caparisoned, from 
rank to rank, animating the men to the high- 
est enthusiasm by her courageous bearing, 
her look of confidence, and her smiles. 

She made an address to the soldiers. She 
said that she had been warned by some of her 
ministers of the danger of trusting herself to 
the power of such an armed multitude, for 
these forces were not regularly enlisted 
troops, but volunteers from among the citi- 
zens, who had suddenly left the ordinary avo- 
cations and pursuits of life to defend their 
country in this emergency. She had, however, 
she said, no such apprehensions of danger. 
She could trust herself without fear to the 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 2C»5 

courage and fidelity of her subjects, as she 
had always, during all her reign, considered 
her greatest strength and safeguard as consist- 
ing in their loyalty and good will. For her- 
self, she had come to the camp, she assured 
them, not for the sake of empty pageantry 
and parade, but to take her share with them 
in the dangers, and toils, and terrors of the 
actual battle. If Philip should land, they 
would find their queen in the hottest of the 
conflict, fighting by their sides. "I have/ 5 
said she, "I know, only the body of a weak 
and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a 
king; and I am ready for my God, my king- 
dom, and my people, to have that body laid 
down, even in the dust. If the battle comes, 
therefore, I shall myself be in the midst and 
front of it, to live or die with you." 

These were, thus far, but words, it is true, 
and how far Elizabeth would have vindicated 
their sincerity, if the entrance of the armada 
into the Thames had put her to the test, we 
can not now know. Sir Francis Drake saved 
her from the trial. One morning a small ves- 
sel came into the harbor at Plymouth, where 
the English fleet was lying, with the news 
that the armada was coming up the Channel 
under full sail. The anchors of the fleer "'ere 



206 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

immediately raised, and great exertions made 
to get it out of the harbor, which was difficult, 
as the wind at the time was blowing directly 
in. The squadron got out at last, as night 
was coming on. The next morning the ar- 
mada hove in sight, advancing from the west- 
ward up the Channel, in a vast crescent, 
which extended for seven miles from north to 
south, and seemed to sweep the whole sea. 

It was a magnificent spectacle, and it was 
the ushering in of that far grander spectacle 
still, of which the English Channel was the 
scene for the ten days which followed, during 
which the enormous naval structures of the 
armada, as they slowly made their way along, 
were followed, and fired upon, and harassed 
by the smaller, and lighter, and more active 
vessels of their English foes. The unwieldy 
monsters pressed on, surrounded and worried 
by their nimbler enemies like hawks driven by 
kingfishers through the sky. Day after day 
this most extraordinary contest, half flight 
and half battle, continued, every promontory 
on the shores covered all the time with spec- 
tators, who listened to the distant booming of 
the guns, and watched the smokes which 
arose from the cannonading and the conflag- 
rations. One great galleon after another fell 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. 207 

a prey. Some were burned, some taken as 
prizes, some driven ashore; and finally, one 
dark night, the English sent a fleet of fire- 
ships, all in flames, into the midst of the an- 
chorage to which the Spaniards had retired, 
which scattered them in terror and dismay, 
and completed the discomfiture of the squad- 
ron. 

The result was, that by the time the invin- 
cible armada had made its way through the 
Channel, and had passed the Straits of Dover, 
it was so dispersed, and shattered, and broken, 
that its commanders, far from feeling any dis- 
position to sail up the Thames, were only anx- 
ious to make good their escape from their 
indefatigable and tormenting foes. They did 
not dare, in attempting to make this escape, to 
return through the Channel, so they pushed 
northward into the German Ocean. Their 
only course for getting back to Spain again 
was to pass round the northern side of Eng- 
land, among the cold and stormy seas that are 
rolling in continually among the ragged rocks 
and gloomy islands which darken the ocean 
there. At last a miserable remnant of the fleet 
—less than half— made their way back to 
Spain again. 




CHAPTER XL 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 



The lady whom tlie Earl of Leicester mar- 
ried was, a short time before he married her, 
the wife of the Earl of Essex, and she had one 
son, who, on the death of his father, became 
the Earl of Essex in his turn. He came to 
court, and continued in Leicester's family af- 
ter his mother's second marriage. He was an 
accomplished and elegant young man, and 
was regarded with a good deal of favor by the 
queen. He was introduced at court when he 
was but seventeen years old, and, being the 
step-son of Leicester, he necessarily occupied 
a conspicuous position ; his personal qualities, 
joined with this, soon gave him a very high 
and honorable name. 

About a month after the victory obtained 
by the English over the invincible armada, 
Leicester was seized with a fever on a journey, 
and, after lingering for a few days, died, leav- 
ing Essex, as it were, in his place. Elizabeth 
seems not to have been very inconsolable for 

208 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 20Q 

her favorite's death. She directed, or allowed, 
his property to be sold at auction, to pay some 
debts which he owed her — or, as the histor- 
ians of the day express it, which he owed the 
crozun — and then seemed at once to transfer 
her fondness and affection to the young Es- 
sex, who was at that time twenty-one years of 
age. Elizabeth herself was now nearly sixty. 
Cecil was growing old also, and was some- 
what infirm, though he had a son who was 
rapidly coming forward in rank and influence 
at court. This son's name was Robert. The 
young Earl of Essex's name was Robert too. 
The elder Cecil and Leicester had been, all 
their lives, watchful and jealous of each other, 
and in some sense rivals. Robert Cecil and 
Robert Devereux— for that was, in full, the 
Earl of Essex's family name — being young 
and ardent, inherited the animosity of their 
parents, and were less cautious and wary in 
expressing it. They soon became open foes. 
Robert Devereux, or Essex, as he is com- 
monly called in history, was handsome and 
accomplished, ardent, impulsive, and gener- 
ous. The war with Spain, notwithstanding 
the destruction of the armada, continued, and 
Essex entered into it with all zeal. The queen, 
who with all her ambition, and her proud and 



210 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

domineering spirit, felt, like any other woman, 
the necessity of having something to love, 
soon began to take a strong interest in his 
person and fortunes, and seemed to love him 
as a mother loves a son ; and he, in his turn, 
soon learned to act toward her as a son, full 
of youthful courage and ardor, often acts 
toward a mother, over whose heart he feels 
that he has a strong control. He would go 
away, without leave, to mix in affrays with 
the Spanish ships in the English Channel and 
in the Bay of Biscay, and then come back and 
make his peace with the queen by very hum- 
ble petitions for pardon, and promises of fu- 
ture obedience. When he went, with her 
leave, on these expeditions, she would charge 
his superior officers to keep him out of dan- 
ger; while he, with an impetuosity which 
strongly marked his character, would evade 
and escape from all these injunctions, and 
press forward into every possible exposure, 
always eager to have battle given, and to get, 
himself, into the hottest part of it, when it 
was begun. At one time, off Cadiz, the offi- 
cers of the English ships hesitated some time 
whether to venture an attack upon some ships 
in the harbor — Essex burning with impati- 
ence all the time — and when it was at length 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 211 

decided to make the attack, he was so excited 
with enthusiasm and pleasure that he threw 
his cap up into the air, and overboard, per- 
fectly wild with delight, like a school-boy in 
anticipation of a holiday. 

Ten years passed away, and Essex rose 
higher and higher in estimation and honor. 
He was sometimes in the queen's palaces at 
home, and sometimes away on the Spanish 
seas, where he acquired great fame. He was 
proud and imperious at court, relying on his 
influence with the queen, who treated him as a 
fond mother treats a spoiled child. She was 
often vexed with his conduct, but she could 
not help loving him. One day, as he was com- 
ing into the queen's presence chamber, he saw 
one of the courtiers there who had a golden 
ornament upon his arm which the queen had 
given him the day before. He asked what it 
was; they told him it was a "favor" from the 
queen. "Ah," said he, "I see how it is going 
to be ; every fool must have his favor." The 
courtier resented this mode of speaking of his 
distinction, and challenged Essex to a duel. 
The combatants met in the Park, and Essex 
was disarmed and wounded. The queen 
heard of the affair, and, after inquiring very 
curiously about all the particulars, she said 

16— Klizabeth 



212 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

vhat she was glad of it; for, unless there was 
somebody to take down his pride, there would 
be no such thing as doing any thing with him. 

Elizabeth's feelings toward Essex fluctuat- 
ed in strange alternations of fondness and 
displeasure. At one time, when affection was 
in the ascendency, she gave him a ring, as a 
talisman of her protection. She promised 
him that if he ever should become involved in 
troubles or difficulties of any kind, and especi- 
ally if he should lose her favor, either by his 
own misconduct or by the false accusations 
of his enemies, if he would send her that ring, 
it should serve to recall her former kind re- 
gard, and incline her to pardon and save him. 
Essex took the ring, and preserved it with the 
utmost care. 

Friendship between persons of such impet- 
uous and excitable temperaments as Eliza- 
beth and Essex both possessed, though usu- 
ally very ardent for a time, is very precarious 
and uncertain in duration. After various pet- 
ulant and brief disputes, which were easily 
reconciled, there came at length a serious 
quarrel. There was, at that time, great diffi- 
culty in Ireland ; a rebellion had broken out, 
in fact, which was fomented and encouraged 
by Spanish influence. Essex was one day 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 213 

urging very strongly the appointment of one 
of his friends to take the command there, 
while the queen was disposed to appoint an- 
other person. Essex urged his views and 
wishes with much importunity, and when he 
found that the queen was determined not to 
yield, he turned his back upon her in a con- 
temptuous and angry manner. The queen 
lost patience in her turn, and, advancing rap- 
idly to him, her eyes sparkling with extreme 
resentment and displeasure, she gave him a 
severe box on the ear, telling him, at the same 
time, to "go and be hanged." Essex was ex- 
ceedingly enraged; he clasped the handle of 
his sword, but was immediately seized by the 
other courtiers present. They, however, soon 
released their hold upon him, and he walked 
off out of the apartment, saying that he could 
not and would not bear such an insult as that. 
He would not have endured it, he said, from 
King Henry the Eighth himself. The name 
of King Henry the Eighth, in those days, was 
the symbol and personification of the highest 
possible human grandeur. 

The friends of Essex among the courtiers 
endeavored to soothe and calm him, and to 
persuade him to apologize to the queen, and 
seek a reconciliation. They told him that, 



214 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

whether right or wrong, he ought to yield ; 
for in contests with the law or with a prince, a 
man, they said, ought, if wrong, to submit 
himself to justice; if right, to necessity; in 
either case, it was his duty to submit. 

This was very good philosophy; but Essex 
was not in a state of mind to listen to philoso- 
phy. He wrote a reply to the friend who had 
counseled him as above, that "the queen had 
the temper of a flint ; that she had treated him 
with such extreme injustice and cruelty so 
many times that his patience was exhausted, 
and he would bear it no longer. He knew 
well enough what duties he owed the queen as 
an earl and grand marshal of England, but he 
did not understand being cuffed and beaten 
like a menial servant ; and that his body suf- 
fered in every part from the blow he had re- 
ceived." 

His resentment, however, got soothed and 
softened in time, and he was again admitted to 
favor, though the consequences of such quar- 
rels are seldom fully repaired. The reconcil- 
iation was, however, in this case, apparently 
complete, and in the following year Essex was 
himself appointed the Governor, or, as styled 
in those days, the Lord Deputy of Ireland. 

He went to his province, and took com- 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 2*5 

mand of the forces which had been collected 
there, and engaged zealously in the work of 
suppressing the rebellion. For some reason 
or other, however, he made very little prog 
ress The name of the leader of the rebels 
was' the Earl of Tyrone.* Tyrone wanted a 
parley, but did not dare to trust himself in 
Essex's power. It was at last, however, 
agreed that the two leaders should come down 
to a river, one of them upon each side, and 
talk across it, neither general to have any 
troops or attendants with him. This plan was 
carried into effect. Essex, stationing a troop 
near him, on a hill, rode down to the water 
on one side, while Tyrone came into the river 
as far as his horse could wade on the other, 
and then the two earls attempted to negotiate 
terms of peace by shouting across the current 

of the stream. 

Nothing effectual was accomplished by this 
and some other similar parleys, and in the 
meantime the weeks were passing away, and 
little was done toward suppressing the rebel- 
lion The queen was dissatisfied. She sent 
Essex letters of complaint and censure. These 
letters awakened the lord deputy's resent- 
ment. The breach was thus rapidly widen- 
* Spelled in the old histories Tir-Oen. 



2l6 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

ing, when Essex all at once conceived the idea 
of going himself to Engand, without permis- 
sion, and without giving any notice of his in- 
tention, to endeavor, by a personal interview, 
to reinstate himself in the favor of the queen. 
This was a very bold step. It was entirely 
contrary to military etiquette for an officer to 
leave his command and go home to his sover- 
eign without orders and without permission. 
The plan, however, might have succeeded. 
Leicester did once succeed in such a measure ; 
but in this case, unfortunately, it failed. Es- 
sex traveled with the utmost dispatch, crossed 
the Channel, made the best of his way to the 
palace where the queen was then residing, and 
pressed through the opposition of all the at- 
tendants into the queen's private apartment, 
in his traveling dress, soiled and way-worn. 
The queen was at her toilet, with her hair 
down over her eyes. Essex fell on his knees 
before her, kissed her hand, and made great 
professions of gratitude and love, and of an 
extreme desire to deserve and enjoy her fa- 
vor. The queen was astonished at his ap- 
pearance, but Essex thought that she received 
him kindly. He went away after a short in- 
terview, greatly pleased with the prospect of a 
favorable issue to the desperate step he had 




Elizabeth, face p. 216 

Elizabeth Condemning Essex to the Tower. 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 217 

taken. His joy, however, was soon dispelled. 
In the course of the day he was arrested by 
order of the queen, and sent to his house un- 
der the custody of an officer. He had pre- 
sumed too far. 

Essex was kept thus secluded and confined 
for some time. His house was on the bank 
of the river. None of his friends, not even 
his countess, were allowed access to him. 
His impetuous spirit wore itself out in chaf- 
ing against the restraints and means of coer- 
cion which were pressing upon him ; but he 
would not submit. The mind of the queen, 
too, was deeply agitated all the time by that 
most tempestuous of all mental conflicts, a 
struggle between resentment and love. Her 
affection for her proud-spirited favorite 
seemed as strong as ever, but she was deter- 
mined to make him yield in the contest she 
had commenced with him. How often cases 
precisely similar occur in less conspicuous 
scenes of action, where they who love each 
other with a sincere and uncontrollable af- 
fection take their stand in attitudes of hostil- 
ity, each determined that the obstinacy of the 
other shall give way, and each heart per- 
sisting in its own determination, resentment 
and love struggling all the time in a dreadful 



2l8 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

contest, which keeps the soul in a perpetual 
commotion, and allows of no peace till either 
the obstinacy yields or the love is extinguish 
ed and gone. 

It was indirectly made known to Essex that 
if he would confess his fault, ask the queen's 
forgiveness, and petition for a release from 
confinement, in order that he might return to 
his duties in Ireland, the difficulty could be 
settled. But no, he would make no conces- 
sions. The queen, in retaliation, increased 
the pressure upon him. The more strongly 
he felt the pressure, the more his proud and 
resentful spirit was aroused, lie walked his 
room, his soul boiling with anger and chagrin, 
while the queen, equally distressed and har- 
1 by the conflict in her own soul, still per- 
severed, Imping every day that the unbending 
spirit with which she was contending would 
yield at last. 

At length the tidings came to her that Es- 
sex, worn out with agitation and suffering, 
was seriously sick. The historians doubt 
whether his sickness was real or feigned ; but 
there is not much difficulty in understanding, 
from the circumstances of the case, what its 
real nature was. Such mental conflicts as 
those which he endured suspend the powers 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 2IO, 

of digestion and accelerate the pulsations of 
the heart, which beats in the bosom with a 
preternatural frequency and force, like a bird 
fluttering to get free from a snare. The result 
is a sort of fever burning slowly in the veins, 
and an emaciation which wastes the strength 
away, and, in impetuous and uncontrollable 
spirits, like that of Essex, sometimes exhausts 
the powers of life altogether. The sickness, 
therefore, though of mental origin, becomes 
bodily and real; but then the sufferer is often 
ready, in such cases, to add a little to it by 
feigning. An instinct teaches him that nothing 
is so likely to move the heart whose cruelty 
causes him to suffer, as a knowledge of the 
extreme to which it has reduced him. Essex 
was doubtless willing that Elizabeth should 
know that he was sick. Her knowing it had, 
in some measure, the usual effect. It re- 
awakened and strengthened the love she had 
felt for him, but did not give it absolutely the 
victory. She sent eight physicians to him, to 
examine and consult upon his case. She 
caused some broth to be made for him, and 
gave it to one of these physicians to carry to 
him, directing the messenger, in a faltering 
voice, to say to Essex that if it were proper 
to do so she would have come to see him her- 



220 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

self. She then turned away to hide her tears. 
Strange inconsistency of the human heart — 
resentment and anger holding their ground 
in the soul against the object of such deep and 
unconquerable love. It would be incredible, 
were it not that probably every single one of 
all the thousands who may read this story has 
experienced the same. 

Nothing has so great an effect in awaken- 
ing in the heart a strong sentiment of kind- 
ness as the performance of a kind act. Feel- 
ing originates and controls action, it is true, 
but then, on the other hand, action has a pro- 
digious power in modifying feeling. Eliza- 
beth's acts of kindness to Essex in his sick- 
ness produced a renewal of her tenderness for 
him so strong that her obstinacy and anger 
gave way before it, and she soon began to de- 
sire some mode of releasing him from his con- 
finement, and restoring him to favor. Essex 
was softened too. In a word, there was finally 
a reconciliation, though it was accomplished 
by slow degrees, and by means of a sort of 
series of capitulations. There was an investi- 
gation of his case before the privy council, 
which resulted in a condemnation of his con- 
duct, and a recommendation to the mercy of 
the queen ; and then followed some communi- 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 221 

cations between Essex and his sovereign, in 
which he expressed sorrow for his faults, and 
made satisfactory promises for the future. 

The queen, however, had not magnanimity 
enough to let the quarrel end without taunt- 
ing and irritating the penitent with expres- 
sions of triumph. In reply to his acknowl- 
edgments and professions, she told him that 
she was glad to hear of his good intentions, 
and she hoped that he would show, by his fu- 
ture conduct, that he meant to fulfill them ; 
that he had tried her patience for a long time, 
but she hoped that henceforth she should have 
no further trouble. If it had been her father, 
she added, ( instead of herself, that he had had 
to deal with, he would not have been pardoned 
at all. It could not be a very cordial recon- 
ciliation which was consummated by such 
words as these. But it was very like Eliza- 
beth to utter them. They who are governed 
by their temper are governed by it even in 
their love. 

Essex was not restored to office. In fact, 
he did not wish to be restored. He said that 
he was resolved henceforth to lead a private 
life. But even in respect to this plan he was 
at the mercy of the queen, for his private in- 
come was in a great measure derived from a 



222 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

monopoly, as it is called, in a certain kind of 
wines, which had been granted to him some 
time before. It was a very customary mode, 
in those days, of enriching favorites, to grant 
them monopolies of certain kinds of merchan- 
dise, that is, the exclusive right to sell them. 
The persons to whom this privilege was grant- 
ed would underlet their right to merchants in 
various parts of the kingdom, on condition of 
receiving a certain share of the profits. Es- 
sex had thus derived a great revenue from his 
monopoly of wines. The grant, however, was 
expiring, and he petitioned the queen that it 
might be renewed. 

The interest which Essex felt in the renew- 
al of this grant was one of the strongest in- 
ducements to lead him to submit to the humil- 
iations which he had endured, and to make 
concessions to the queen. But he was disap- 
pointed in his hopes. The queen, elated a lit- 
tle with the triumph already attained, and, 
perhaps, desirous of the pleasure of humbling 
Essex still more, refused at present to renew 
his monopoly, saying that she thought it 
would do him good to be restricted a little, 
for a time, in his means. "Unmanageable 
beasts," she said, "had to be tamed by being 
stinted in their provender." 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 223 

Essex was sharply stung by such a refusal, 
accompanied, too, by such an insult. He was 
full of indignation and anger. At first he 
gave free expression to his feelings of vexa- 
tion in conversation with those around him. 
The queen, he said, had got to be a perverse 
and obstinate old woman, as crooked in mind 
as she was in body. He had plenty of enemies 
to listen to these speeches, and to report them 
in such a way as they should reach the queen. 
A new breach was consequently opened, 
which seemed now wider than ever, and ir- 
reparable. 

At least it seemed so to Essex ; and, aban- 
doning all plans for again enjoying the favor 
of Elizabeth, he began to consider what he 
could do to undermine her power and rise up- 
on the ruins of it. The idea was insanity, but 
passion always makes men insane. James 
kingof Scotland, the son and successor ot 
Mary, was the rightful heir to the English 
throne after Elizabeth's death. In order to 
make his right of succession more secure, he 
had wished to have Elizabeth acknowledge it; 
but she, always dreading terribly the thoughts 
of death, could never bear to think of a suc- 
cessor, and seemed to hate every one who en- 
tertained any expectation of following her. 



224 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Essex suppressed all outward expressions of 
violence and anger ; became thoughtful, 
moody and sullen; held secret consultations 
with desperate intriguers, and finally formed 
a scheme to organize a rebellion, to bring 
King James's troops to England to support it, 
to take possession of the Tower and of the 
strong-holds about London, to seize the pal- 
ace of the queen, overturn her government, 
and compel her both to acknowledge James's 
right to the succession and to restore Essex 
himself to power. 

The personal character of Essex had given 
him a very wide-spread popularity and influ- 
ence, and he had, consequently, very exten- 
sive materials at his command for organizing 
a powerful conspiracy. The plot was gradu- 
ally matured, extending itself, in the course 
of the few following months, not only 
throughout England, but also into France and 
Spain. The time for the final explosion was 
drawing near, when, as usual in such cases, 
intelligence of the existence of this treason, in 
the form of vague rumors, reached the queen. 
One day, when the leading conspirators were 
assembled at Essex's palace, a messenger 
came to summon the earl to appear before the 
council. They received, also, private intelli- 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 225 

gence that their plots were probably discov- 
ered. While they were considering what to 
do in this emergency— all in a state of great 
perplexity and fear — a person came, pretend- 
ing to be a deputy sent from some of the prin- 
cipal citizens of London, to say to Essex that 
they were ready to espouse his cause. Essex 
immediately became urgent to commence the 
insurrection at once. Some of his friends, on 
the other hand, were in favor of abandoning 
the enterprise, and flying from the country; 
but Essex said he had rather be shot at the 
head of his bands than to wander all his days 
beyond the seas, a fugitive and a vagabond. 

The conspirators acceded to their leader's 
councils. They sent word, accordingly, into 
the city, and began to make their arrange- 
ments to rise in arms the next morning. The 
night was spent in anxious preparations. 
Early in the morning, a deputation of some of 
the highest officers of the government, with a 
train of attendants, came to Essex's palace, 
and demanded entrance in the name of the 
queen. The gates of the palace were shut and 
guarded. At last, after some hesitation and 
delay, the conspirators opened a wicket, that 
is, a small gate within the large one, which 
would admit one person at a time. They al- 

17— Elizabeth 



226 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

lowed the officers themselves to enter, but 
shut the gate immediately so as to exclude the 
attendants. The officers found themselves in 
a large court-yard filled with armed men, Es- 
sex standing calmly at the head of them. They 
demanded what was the meaningof such an 
unusual assemblage. Essex replied that it 
was to defend his life from conspiracies form- 
ed against it by its enemies. The officers de 
nied this danger, and began to expostulate 
with Essex in angry terms, and the attendants 
on his side to reply with vociferations and 
threats, when Essex, to end the altercation, 
took the officers into the palace. He con- 
ducted them to a room and shut them up, to 
keep them as hostages. 

It was now near ten o'clock, and, leaving 
his prisoners in their apartment, under a prop- 
er guard, Essex sallied forth, with the more 
resolute and desperate of his followers, and 
proceeded into the city, to bring out into ac- 
tion the forces which he supposed were ready 
to co-operate with him there. He rode on 
through the streets, calling to arms, and 
shouting, "For the queen ! For the queen !" 
His design was to convey the impression that 
the movement which he was making was not 
against the queen herself, but against his own 






THE EARL OF ESSEX. 22J 

enemies in her councils, and that she was her- 
self on his side. The people of London, how- 
ever, could not be so easily deceived. The 
mayor had received warning before, from the 
council, to be ready to suppress the move- 
ment, if one should be made. As soon, there- 
fore, as Essex and his company were fairly in 
the city, the gates were shut and barred to 
prevent his return. One of the queen's prin- 
cipal ministers of state too, at the head of a 
small troop of horsemen came in and rode 
through the streets, proclaiming Essex a 
traitor, and calling upon all the citizens to aid 
in arresting him. One of Essex's followers fired 
a pistol at this officer to stop his proclama- 
tion, but the people generally seemed dis- 
posed to listen to him, and to comply with his 
demand. After riding, therefore, through 
some of the principal streets, he returned to 
the queen, and reported to her that all was 
well in the city ; there was no danger that Es- 
sex would succeed in raising a rebellion there. 
In the meantime, the further Essex pro- 
ceeded, the more he found himself environed 
with difficulties and dangers. The people be- 
gan to assemble here and there with evident 
intent to impede his movements. They 
blocked up the streets with carts and coaches 



228 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

to prevent his escape. His followers, one af- 
ter another, finding all hope of success gone, 
abandoned their despairing leader and fled, 
Essex himself, with the few who still adhered 
to him, wandered about till two o'clock, find- 
ing the way of retreat every where hemmed 
up against him. At length he fled to the river 
side, took a boat, with the few who still re- 
mained with him, and ordered the water- 
man to row as rapidly as possible up 
the river. They landed at Westmin- 
ster, retreated to Essex's house, fled 
into it with the utmost precipitation, 
and barricaded the doors. Essex him- 
self was excited in the highest degree, fully 
determined to die there rather than surrender 
himself a prisoner. The terrible desperation 
to which men are reduced in emergencies like 
these is shown by the fact that one of his fol- 
lowers did actually station himself at a win- 
dow bare-headed, inviting a shot from the 
pistols of the pursuers, who had by this time 
environed the house, and were preparing to 
force their way in. His plan succeeded. He 
was shot, and died that night. 

Essex himself was not quite so desperate as 
this. He soon saw, however, that he must 
sooner or later yield. He could not stand a 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 229 

siege in his own private dwelling against the 
whole force of the English realm. He sur- 
rendered about six in the evening, and was 
sent to the Tower. He was soon afterward 
brought to trial. The facts, with all the ar- 
rangements and details of the conspiracy, 
were fully proved, and he was condemned to 
die. 

As the unhappy prisoner lay in his gloomy 
dungeon in the Tower, the insane excitement 
under which he had for so many months been 
acting slowly ebbed away. He awoke from it 
gradually, as one recovers his senses after a 
dreadful dream. He saw how utterly irretriev- 
able was the mischief which had been done. 
Remorse for his guilt in having attempted to 
destroy the peace of the kingdom to gratify 
his own personal feelings of revenge ; recol- 
lections of the favors which Elizabeth had 
shown him, and of the love which she had felt 
for him, obviously so deep and sincere; the 
consciousness that his life was fairly forfeited, 
and that he must die — to lie in his cell and 
think of these things, overwhelmed him with 
anguish and despair. The brilliant prospects 
which were so recently before him were all 
forever gone, leaving nothing in their place 
but the grim phantom of an executioner, 



230 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

standing with an ax by the side of a dreadful 
platform, with a block upon it, half revealed 
and half hidden by the black cloth which cov- 
ered it like a pall. 

Elizabeth, in her palace, was in a state of 
mind scarcely less distressing than that of the 
wretched prisoner in his cell. The old con- 
flict was renewed — pride and resentment on 
the one side, and love which would not be ex- 
tinguished on the other. If Essex would sue 
for pardon, she would remit his sentence and 
allow him to live. Why would he not do it? 
If he would send her the ring which she had 
given him for exactly such an emergency, he 
might be saved. Why did he not send it? The 
courtiers and statesmen about her urged her 
to sign the warrant ; the peace of the country 
demanded the execution of the laws in a case 
of such unquestionable guilt. They told her, 
too, that Essex wished to die, that he knew 
that he was hopelessly and irretrievably ruin- 
ed, and that life, if granted to him, was a boon 
which would compromise her own safety and 
confer no benefit on him. Still Elizabeth 
waited and waited in an agony of suspense, in 
hopes that the ring would come; the sending 
of it would be so far an act of submission on 
his part as would put it in her power to do 




Elizabeth, face p. 230 



Essex Landing at the Traitor's Gate. 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 23 1 

the rest. Her love could bend her pride, in- 
domitable as it usually was, almost to the 
whole concession, but it would not give up 
quite all. It demanded some sacrifice on his 
part, which sacrifice the sending of the ring 
would have rendered. The ring did not come, 
nor any petition for mercy, and at length the 
fatal warrant was signed. 

What the courtiers said about Essex's de- 
sire to die was doubtless true. Like every 
other person involved in irretrievable suffer- 
ings and sorrows, he wanted to live, and he 
wanted to die. The two contradictory desires 
shared dominion in his heart, sometimes 
struggling together in a tumultuous conflict, 
and sometimes reigning in alternation, in calms 
more terrible, in fact, than the tempests which 
preceded and followed them. 

At the appointed time the unhappy man 
was led out to the court-yard in the Tower 
where the last scene was to be enacted. The 
lieutenant of the Tower presided, dressed in a 
black velvet gown, over a suit of black satin. 
The "scaffold" was a platform about twelve 
feet square and four feet high, with a railing 
around it, and steps by which to ascend. The 
block was in the center of it, covered, as well 
as the platform itself, with black cloth. There 



2$2 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

were seats erected near for those who were ap- 
pointed to be present at the execution. Essex 
ascended the platform with a firm step, and, 
surveying the solemn scene around him with 
calmness and composure, he began to speak, 
lie asked the forgiveness of God, of the 
spectators present, and of the queen, for the 
crimes for which he was about to suffer. He 
acknowledged his guilt, and the justice of his 
condemnation. His mind seemed deeply im- 
bued with a sense of his accountability to 
God, and he d a strong desire to be 

forgiven, for Christ's sake, for all the sins 
which he had committed, which had been, he 
.-aid, most numerous and aggravated from his 
earliest years. He asked the spectators pres- 
ent to join him in his devotions, and he then 
proceeded to offer a short prayer, in which he 
implored pardon for his sins, and a long life 
and happy reign for the queen. The prayer 
ended, all was ready. The executioner, ac- 
cording to the strange custom on such occa- 
sions, then asked his pardon for the violence 
which he was about to commit, which Essex 
readily granted. Essex laid his head upon the 
block, and it required three blows to complete 
its severance from the body. When the deed 
was done, the executioner took up the bleed- 



THE EARL OF ESSEX. 



233 



ing Head, saying solemnly, as he heft it, 
"God save the queen." 

— ^zn 




Execution of the Earl of Essex. 




CHAPTER XII. 



THE CONCLUSION. 



There can be no doubt that Essex was 
really guilty of the treason for which he was 
condemned, but mankind have generally been 
inclined to consider Elizabeth rather than him 
as the one really accountable, both for the 
crime and its consequences. To elate and in- 
toxicate, in the first place, an ardent and am- 
bitious boy, by flattery and favors, and then, 
in the end, on the occurrence of real or fancied 
causes of displeasure, to tease and torment so 
sensitive and impetuous a spirit to absolute 
madness and phrensy, was to take the respon- 
sibility, in a great measure, for all the effects 
which might follow. At least so it has gen- 
erally been regarded. By almost all the read- 
ers of the story, Essex is pitied and mourned 
— it is Elizabeth that is condemned. It is a 
melancholy story; but scenes exactly parallel 
to this case are continually occurring in private 
life all around us, where sorrows and suffer- 
ings which are, so far as the heart is con- 
234 



THE CONCLUSION, 235 

eerne>d, precisely the same result from the 
combined action, or rather, perhaps, the alter- 
nating and contending action, of fondness, 
passion, and obstinacy. The results are al- 
ways, in their own nature, the same, though 
not often on so great a scale as to make the 
wrong which follows treason against a realm, 
and the consequence a beheading in the Tower. 
There must have been some vague con- 
sciousness of this her share in 'the guilt of the 
-transaction in Elizabeth's mind, even while 
the trial of Essex was going on. We know 
that she was harassed by the most torment- 
ing suspense and perplexity while the ques- 
tion of the execution of his sentence was 
pending. Of course, when the plot was dis- 
covered, Essex's party and all his friends fell 
immediately from all influence and considera- 
tion at court. Many of them were arrested 
arid imprisoned, and four were executed, as 
he had been. The party whioh had been op- 
posed to him acquired at once the entire as- 
cendency, and 'they all, judges, counselors, 
statesmen, and generals, combined their in- 
fluence to press upon the queen the necessity 
of his execution. She signed one warrant and 
delivered it to the officer ; but then, as soon as 
the deed was done, she was so overwhelmed 



236 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

with distress and 'anguish that she sent to re- 
call it, and had it cancelled. Finally she signed 
another, and the sentence was executed. 

Time will cure, in our earlier years, most of 
the sufferings, and calm most of the agitations 
of the soul, however incurable and uncontrol- 
lable they may at first appear to the sufferer. 
But in the later periods of life, when severe 
shocks strike very heavily upon the soul, there 
is found far less of buoyancy and recovering 
power to meet the blow. In such cases the 
stunned and bewildered spirit moves on, after 
receiving its wound, staggering, as it were, 
with faintness and pain, and leaving it for a 
long time uncertain whether it will ultimately 
rise and recover, or sink down and die. 

Dreadfully wounded as Elizabeth was, in 
all the inmost feelings and affections of her 
heart, by the execution of her beloved favor- 
ite, she was a woman of far too much spirit 
and energy to yield without a struggle. She 
made the greatest efforts possible after his 
death to banish the subject from her mind, 
and to recover her wonted spirits. She went 
on hunting excursions and parties of pleasure. 
She prosecuted with great energy her war 
with the Spaniards, and tried to interest her- 
self in (the siege and defense of Continental 



THE CONCLUSION. 237; 

cities. She received an embassage from the 
court of France with great pomp and parade, 
and made a grand progress through a part of 
her dominions, with a long train of attend- 
ants, to the house of a nobleman, where she 
entertained the embassador many days in 
magnificent state, at her own expense, with 
plate and furniture brought from her own pal- 
aces for the purposes. She even planned an 
interview between 'herself and the King of 
France, and went to Dover to effect it. 

'But all would not do. Nothing could drive 
the 'thoughts of Essex from her mind, or dis- 
pel the dejection with which the recollection 
of her love for him, and of 'his unhappy fate, 
oppressed her spirit. A year or two passed 
away, but time brought no relief. Sometimes 
she was fretful and peevish, and sometimes 
hopelessly dejected and sa'd She told the 
French embassador one day that she was 
weary of her life, and when she attempted to 
speak of Essex as the cause of her grief, she 
sighed bitterly and burst into tears. 

When she recovered her composure, she 
told the embassador that she had always been 
uneasy about Essex while he lived, and, know- 
ing his impetuousity of spirit and his ambi- 
tion, she had been afraid that he would one 



238 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

day attempt something which would compro- 
mise his life, and she had warned and en- 
treated him not to be led into any such de- 
signs, for, if he did so, his fate would have to 
be decided by the stern authority of law, and 
not by her own indulgent feelings ; but that all 
her earnest warnings had been insufficient to 
save him. 

It was the same whenever anything occur- 
red which recalled thoughts of Essex to her 
mind; it almost always brought tears to her 
eyes. When Essex was commanding in Ire- 
land, it will be recollected that he had, on one 
occasion, come to a parley with Tyrone, the 
rebel leader, across the current of a stream. 
An officer in his army, named Harrington, 
had been with him on this occasion, and pre- 
sent, though at a little distance, during the 
interview. After Essex had left Ireland, an- 
other lord-deputy had been appointed ; but the 
rebellion continued to give the government a 
great deal of trouble. The Spaniards came 
over to Tyrone's assistance, and Elizabeth's 
mind was much occupied with plans for sub- 
duing him. One day Harrington was at court 
in the presence of the queen, and she asked 
him if 'he had ever seen Tyrone. Harrington 
replied that he had. The queen then recol- 



THE CONCLUSION. 239 

lected the former interview which Harring- 
ton had had with him, and she said, "Oh, now 
I recollect that you had seen him before !" 
This thought recalled Essex so forcibly to her 
mind, and filled 'her with such painful emo- 
tions, that s'he looked up to Harrington with a 
countenance full of grief: tears came to her 
eyes, and she beat her breast with every in- 
dication of extreme mental suffering. 

Things went on in this way until toward 
the close of 1602, when an incident occurred 
whidh seemed to strike down at once and for- 
ever what little strength and spirit the queen 
had remaining. The Countess of Notting- 
ham, a celebrated lady of the court, was dan- 
gerously sick, and had sent for the quern to 
come and see her, saying that she had a com- 
munication to make to her majesty herself, 
personally, which she was very anxious to 
make to her before she died. The queen went 
accordingly to see her. 

When she arrived at ttfhe bedside the count- 
ess showed her a ring. Elizabeth immediate- 
ly recognized it as the ring whic'h sihe had giv- 
en to Essex, and which she had promised to 
consider a special pledge of her protection, 
and Which was to be sent to her by him when- 
ever he found himself in any extremity of 

18— KHzabeth 



240 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

danger and distress. The queen eagerly de- 
manded where it came from. The countess 
replied that Essex had sent the ring to her 
during his imprisonment in the Tower, and 
after his condemnation, with an earnest re- 
quest that she would deliver it to the queen as 
the token of her promise of protection, and of 
his own supplication for mercy. The count- 
ess added that she had intended to deliver the 
ring according to Essex's request, but her 
husband, who was the unhappy prisoner's en- 
emy, forbade her to do it; that ever since the 
execution of Essex she liad been greatly dis- 
tressed at the consequences of her having 
withheld the ring; and that now, as she was 
about to leave the world herself, she felt that 
she could not die in peace without first seeing 
the queen, and acknowledging fully what siie 
had done, and imploring her forgiveness. 

The queen was thrown into a state of ex- 
treme indignation and displeasure by this 
statement. She reproached the dying count- 
ess in the bitterest terms, and shook her as she 
lay helpless in her bed, saying, "God may for- 
give you if he pleases, but / never will !" She 
then went away in a rage. 

Her exasperation, however, against the 
countess was soon succeeded by bursts of in- 



THE CONCLUSION. 24I 

consolable grief at the recollection of the hope- 
less and irretrievable loss of the object of her 
affection, whose image 'the ring called back 
so forcibly to 'her mind. Her imagination 
wandered in wretchedness and despair to the 
gloomy dungeon in 'the Tower Where Essex 
had been confined, and painted him pining 
there, day after day, in dreadful suspense and 
anxiety, waiting for her to redeem the sol- 
emn pledge by which s'he had bound herself in 
giving him the ring. All the sorrow whidh 
she 'had felt at his untimely and cruel fate was 
awakened afresh, and became more poign- 
ant than ever. She made them place cushions 
for her upon the floor, in the most inner and 
secluded of 'her apartments, and there she 
would lie all the day long, her 'hair disheveled, 
her dress neglected, her food refused, and her 
mind a prey to almost uninterrupted anguish 
and grief. 

In January, 1603, she felt that she was 
drawing toward her end, and 'she decided to 
be removed from Westminster to Richmond, 
because there was there an arrangement of 
closets communicating with her chamber, in 
which she could easily and conveniently at- 
tend divine service. She felt 'that she had 
now done with the world, and all the relief 



242 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

and comfort which stfie could find at all from 
the pressure of her distress was in that sense 
of protection and safety which she exper- 
ienced when in tlhe presence of God and listen- 
ing to the exercises of devotion. 

It was a cold and stormy day in January 
when she went to Richmond; but, being rest- 
less and ill at ease, she would not be deterred 
by that circumstance from making the jour- 
ney. She became worse after this removal. 
She made them put cushions again for 'her 
upon the floor, and she would lie upon them 
all the day, refusing to go to (her bed. There 
was a communication from her chamber to 
closets connected with a chapel, where she 
had been accustomed to sit and hear divine 
service. These closets were of the form of 
small galleries, where the queen and her im- 
mediate attendants could sit. There was one 
open and public; another — a smaller one — 
was private, with curtains Which could be 
drawn before it, so as to screen those within 
from the notice of the congregation. The 
queen intended, first, to go into the great clos- 
et ; but, feeling too weak for this, she Changed 
her mind, and ordered the private one to be 
prepared. At last she decided not to attempt 
to make even this effort, but ordered the cush- 



THE CONCLUSION. 243 

ions to be put down upon the floor, near the 
entrance, in her own room, and s'he lay there 
w'hile the prayers were read, listening to the 
voice of the clergyman as it came in to her 
through the open door. 

One day she asked them to take off the 
wedding ring with whidh she had commem- 
orated her espousal to her kingdom and her 
people on the day of 'her coronation. The 
flesh had swollen around it so that it could 
not be removed. The attendants procured an 
instrument and cut it in two, and so relieved 
the finger from the pressure. The work was 
done in silence and solemnity, the queen her- 
self, as well as the attendants, regarding it as 
a symbol that the union, of which the ring 
had been a pledge, was about to be sundered 
forever. 

She sunk rapidly day by day, and, as it be- 
came more and more probable that she would 
soon cease to live, the nobles and statesmen 
who had been attendants at her court for so 
many years withdrew one after another from 
the palace, and left London secretly, but with 
eager dispatch, to make their way to Scotland, 
in order to be the first to hail King James, the 
moment they should learn that Elizabeth had 
ceased to breathe. 



244 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Her being abandoned thus by these heart- 
less friends did not escape the notice of the 
dying queen. Though her strength of body 
was almost gone, the soul was as active and 
busy as ever within its failing tenement. She 
watched everything — noticed everything, 
growing more and more jealous and irritable 
just in proportion as her situation became 
helpless and forlorn. Everything seemed to 
conspire to deepen the despondency and 
gloom which darkened her dying hours. 

Her strength rapidly declined. Her voice 
grew fainter and fainter, until, on the 23d of 
March, she could no longer speak. In the af- 
ternoon of that day she aroused 'herself a 
little, and contrived to make signs to have her 
council called to her bedside. Those who had 
not gone to Scotland came. They asked her 
whom she wished to have succeed her on the 
throne. She could not answer, but when they 
named King James of Scotland, she made a 
sign of assent. After a time the counsellors 
went away. 

At six o'clock in the evening she made signs 
for the archbishop and her chaplains to come 
to her. They were sent for and came. When 
they came in, they approached her bedside 
and kneeled. The patient was lying upon her 



THE CONCLUSION. 245 

back speechless, but her eye, still moving 
watchfully and observing everything, showed 
that the faculties of the soul were unimpaired. 
One of the clergymen asked 'her questions re- 
specting her faith. Of course, she could not 
answer in words. She made signs, however, 
with her eyes and her hands, which seemed 
to prove that she had full possession of all 
her faculties. The bystanders looked on with 
breathless attention. The aged bishop, who 
had asked the questions, then began to pray 
for her. He continued his prayer a long time, 
and then pronouncing a benediction upon iher, 
he was about to rise, but she made a sign. The 
bishop did not understand What she meant, 
but a lady present said that she wished 
the bishop to continue his devotions. 
The bishop, though weary with kneel- 
ing, continued his prayer half an hour 
longer. He then closed again, but 

she repeated the sign. The bishop, find- 
ing thus that his ministrations gave her so 
mudh comfort, renewed them with greater 
fervency than before, and continued his sup- 
plications for a long time— so long, that those 
who had been present at the commencement 
of the service went away softly, one after an- 
other, so that when at last the bishop retired, 



246 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

the queen was left with her nurses and her 
women alone. These attendants remained at 
their dying sovereign's bedside for a few 
hours longer, watching the failing pulse, the 
quickened breathing, and all the other indica- 
tion of approaching dissolution. As hour af- 
ter hour thus passed on, they wished that their 
weary task was done, and that both their pa- 
tient and themselves were at rest. This lasted 
till midnight, and then the intelligence was 
communicated about the palace that Elizabeth 
was no more. 

In the meantime all the roads to Scotland 
were covered, as it were, with eager aspirants 
for the favor of the distinguished personage 
there, w*ho, from the instant Elizabeth ceased 
to breathe, became King of England. They 
flocked into Scotland by sea and by land, urg- 
ing their way as rapidly as possible, each eager 
to be foremost in paving his homage to the 
rising sun. The council assembled and pro- 
claimed King James. Elizabeth lay neglected 
and forgotten. The interest she had inspired 
was awakened only by her power, and that be- 
ing gone, nobody mourned for her, or lament- 
ed her death. The attention of the kingdom 
was soon universally absorbed in the plans 



THE CONCLUSION. 



247 



for receiving and proclaiming the new mon- 
arch from tihe North, and in anticipations of 
the splendid pageantry which was to signal- 
lize his taking his seat upon the English throne. 




Tomb of Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey. 

In due time the body of the deceased queen 
was deposited with those of its progenitors, in 
the ancient place of sepulture of the English 
kings, Westminster Abbey. Westminster Ab- 



248 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

bey, in the sense in which that term is used in 
history, is not to be conceived of as a building, 
nor even as a group of buildings, but rather as 
a long succession of buildings like a dynasty, 
following each other in a line, the various 
structures having been renewed and rebuilt 
constantly, as parts or wholes decayed, from 
century to century, for twelve or fifteen hun- 
dred years. The spot received its consecration 
at a very early day. It was then an island 
formed by the waters of a little tributary to 
the Thames, which has long since entirely dis- 
appeared. Written records of its sacredness, 
and of the sacred structures which have occu- 
pied it, go back more than a thousand years, 
and beyond that time tradition mounts still 
further, carrying the consecration of the spot 
almost to the Christian era, by telling us that 
the Apostle Peter himself, in his missionary 
wanderings, had a chapel or an oratory there. 
The spot has been, in all ages, the great bur- 
ial-place of the English kings, whose monu- 
ments and effigies adorn its walls and aisles in 
endless variety. A vast number, too, of the 
statesmen, generals, and naval heroes of the 
British empire have been admitted to the hon- 
or of having their remains deposited under its 
marble floor. Even literary genius has a little 




Elizabeth, face p. 2AS 



Westminster Abbey. 



THE CONCLUSION. 249 

corner assigned it— the mighty aristocracy 
whose mortal remains it is the main function 
of the building 'to protect 'having so far con- 
descended toward intellectual greatness as to 
allow to Milton, Addison, and Shakespeare 
modest monuments behind a door. The place 
is called the Poet's Corner ; and so famed and 
celebrated is this vast edifice everywhere, that 
the phrase by Which even this obscure and in- 
significant portion of it is known is familiar to 
every ear and every tongue 'throughout the 
English world. 

The body of Elizabeth was interred in a 
part of the edifice called Henry the Seventh's 
Chapel. The word chapel, in the European 
sense, denotes ordinarily a subordinate edifice 
connected with the main body of a church, 
and opening into it. Most frequently, in fact, 
a dhapel is a mere recess or alcove, separated 
from the area of the church by a small screen 
or gilded iron railing. In the Catholic 
churches these dhapels are ornamented with 
sculptures and paintings, with altars and 
crucifixes, and Other such furniture. Some- 
times they are built expressly as monumental 
structures, in whidh case they are often of 
considerable size, and are ornamented with 
great magnificence and splendor. This was 



250 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

the case with Henry the Seventh's Chapel. 
The whole building is, in fact, his tomb. Vast 
sums were expended in the construction of it, 
the work of which extended through two 
reigns. It is now one of the most attractive 
portions of the great pile which it adorns. 
Elizabeth's body was deposited here, and here 
her monument was erected. 

It will be recollected that James, who now 
succeeded Elizabeth, was the son of Alary 
Queen of Scots. Soon after his accession to 
the throne, he removed the remains of his 
mother from their place of sepulture near the 
scene of her execution, and interred them in 
the south aisle of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, 
While the body of Elizabeth occupied the 
northern one.* He placed, also, over Mary's 
remains, a tomb very similar in its plan and 
design to that by which the memory of Eliza- 
beth was honored ; and there the rival queens 
have since reposed in silence and peace under 
the same paved floor. And though the monu- 

*See our history of Mary Queen of Scots, near 
the close. Aisles in English Cathedral churches are 
colonnades, or spaces between columns on an open 
floor, and not passages between pews, as with us. 
In mounmental churches like Westminster Abbey 
there are no pews. 




Elizabeth, face 250 



King James I. of England. 



\ 



252 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

ments do not materially differ in their archi- 
tectural forms, it is found that the visitors 
who go continually to the spot gaze with a 
brief though lively interest at the one, while 
they linger long and mournfully over the 
other. 

. The character of Elizabeth (has not gener- 
ally awakened among mankind much com- 
mendation or sympathy. They who censure or 
condemn her should, however, reflect how 
very conspicuous was the stage on which she 
acted, and how minutely al'l her faults have 
been paraded to the world. That she deserv- 
ed the reproaches which have been so freely 
cast upon 'her memory cannot be denied. It 
will moderate, however, any tendency to cen- 
soriousness in our mode of uttering them, if 
we consider to how little advantage we should 
ourselves appear, if all the words of fretfu'l- 
ness and irritability which we have ever spok- 
en, all our insincerity and double-dealing, our 
selfishness, our pride, our petty resentments, 
our caprice, and our countless follies, were ex- 
posed as fully to the public gaze as were those 
of this renowned and glorious, but unhappy 
queen. 



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LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED 
STATES. Compiled from authoritative sources. With 
portraits of the Presidents ; and also of the unsuccessful 
candidates for the office; as well as the ablest of the 
Cabinet officers. 

This book should be in every home and school library. It tells, 
in an impartial way, the story of the political history of the United 
States, from the first Constitutional convention to the last Fret)* 



ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



dential nominations, it is just the book for intelligent boys, and it 
will help to make them intelligent and patriotic citizens. 

THE STORY OF ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN 
SEA. With 70 illustrations. Compiled from authorized 
sources. 

We here have brought together the records of the attempts to 
reach the North Pole. Our object being to recall the stories of the 
early voyagers, and to narrate the recent efforts of gallant adven- 
turers <if various nationalities to cross the " unknown and inacces- 
ible " threshold ; and to show how much can be accomplished by 
indomitable pluck and steady perseverance. Portraits and numer- 
ous illustrations help the narration. 

ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY. By the Rev. 
J. G. Wood. With 80 illustrations. 

Wood's Natural History needs no commendation. Its author 
has done more than any other writer to popularize the study. His 
work is known and admired overall the civilized world. The sales 
of his works in England and America have been enormous. The 
illustrations in this edition are entirely new, striking and life-like. 

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Charles 

Dickens. With 50 illustrations. 

I Hckens grew tired of listening to his children memorizing the 
old fashioned twaddle that went under the name of English his- 
tory. He thereupon wrote a book, in his own peculiarly happy 
style, primarily for the educational advantage of his own children, 
but was prevailed upon to publish the work, and make its use gen- 
eral. Its success was instantaneous and abiding. 

BLACK BEAUTY; The Autobiography of a Horse. By 
Anna Sewell. With 50 illustrations. 

This new illustrated edition is sure to command attention. 
Wherever children are, whether boys or girls, there this Autobiog- 
raphy should be It inculcates habits of kindness to all members 
of the animal creation. The literary merit of the book is excellent. 

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS. With 
50 illustrations. Contains the most favorably known of 
the stories. 

The text is somewhat abridged and edited for the young. It 
forms an excellent introduction to those immortal tales which have 
helped so long to keep the weary world young. 



ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES. By Hans Christian An- 
dersen. With 77 illustrations. 

The spirit of high moral teaching, and the delicacy of sentiment, 
feeling and expression that pervade these tales make these won- 
derful creations not only attractive to the young, but equally accept- 
able to those of mature years, who are able to understand their 
real significance and appreciate the depth of their meaning. 

GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES. With 50 illustrations. 

These tales of the Brothers Grimm have carried their names into 
every household of the civilized world. 

The Tales are a wonderful collection, as interesting, from a lit- 
erary point of view, as they are delightful as stories. 

GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR; A History for Youth. By 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 60 illustrations. 

The story of America from the landing of the Puritans to the 
acknowledgment without reserve of the Independence of the 
United States, told with all th.e elegance, simplicity, grace, clear- 
ness and force for which Hawthorne is conspicuously noted. 

FLOWER FABLES. By Louisa May Alcott. With colored 
and plain illustrations. 

A series of very interesting fairy tales by the most charming of 
American story-tellers. 

AUNT MARTHA'S CORNER CUPBOARD. By Mary 
and Elizabeth Kirby. With 60 illustrations. 

Stories about Tea,' Coffee, Sugar, Rice and Chinaware, and 
other accessories of the well-kept Cupboard. A book full of in- 
terest for all the girls and many of the boys. 

WATER-BABIES; A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. By 
Charles Kingsley. With 94 illustrations. . 
" Come read me my riddle, each good little man ; 
If you cannot read it, no grown-up folk can." 

BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. By 
Prescott Holmes. With 70 illustrations. 

A graphic and full history of the Rebellion of the American Col- 
onies from the yoke and oppression of England, with the causes 



6 ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

that led thereto, and including an account of the second war with 
( ircat Britain, and the War with Mexico. 

BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION. By 
Prescott Holmes. With 80 illustrations. 

A correct and impartial account of the greatest civil war in the 
annals of history. Both of these histories of American wars are 
a necessary part of the education of all intelligent American boys 
and girls. 

YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH 
SPAIN. By Prescott Holmes. With 89 illustrations. 

This history of our war with Spain, in 1898, presents in a plain, 
easy style the splendid achievements of our army and navy, and 
the prominent figures that came into the public view during that 
period. Its glowing descriptions, wealth of anecdote, accuracy < f 
statement and profusion of illustration make it a most desirable 
gift book for young readers. 

HEROES OF. THE UNITED STATES NAVY. By 

liartwell James. With 65 illustrations. 

The story of our navy is one of the most brilliant pages in the 
w -rld's history. The sketches and exploits contained in this vol 
ume cover our entire naval history from the days of the honest, 
rough sailors cf Revolutionary times, with their cutlasses and 
boarding pikes, to the brief war of 1898, when our superbly ap- 
pointed warships destroyed Spain's proud cruisers by the merci- 
less accuracy of their fire. 

MILITARY HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

By Hartwell James. With 97 illustrations. 

In this volume the brave lives and heroic deeds c four military 
heroes, from Paul Revere to Lawton, are told in the most captiva- 
ting manner. » The material for the work has been gathered from 
the North and the South alike. The volume presents all the im- 
portant facts in a manner enabling the young people of our united 
and prosperous land to easily become familiar with the command- 
ing figures that have arisen in our military history. 

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; or Life Among the Lowly. By 
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. With 90 illustrations. 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 7 

The unfailing interest in the famous old story suggested the need 
of an edition specially prepared for young readers, and elaborately 
illustrated. This edition completely fills that want. 

SEA KINGS AND NAVAL HEROES. By Hartwell 
James. With 50 illustrations. 

The most famous sea battles of the world, with sketches of the 
lives, enterprises and achievements of men who have become fam- 
ous in naval history. They are stories of brave lives in times of 
trial and danger, charmingly told for young people. 

POOR BOYS' CHANCES. By John Habberton. With 

50 illustrations. 

There is a fascination about the writings of the author of 
" Helen's Babies," from which none can escape. In this charm- 
ing volume, Mr. Habberton tells the boys of America how they 
can attain the highest positions in the land, without the struggles 
and privations endured by poor boys who rose to eminence and 
fame in former limes. 

ROMULUS, the Founder of Rome. By Jacob Abbott. 
With 49 illustrations. 

In a plain and connected narrative, the author tells the stories 
of the founder of Rome and his great ancestor, /Eneas. These 
are of necessity somewhat legendary in character, but are pre- 
sented precisely as they have come down to us from ancient times. 
They are prefaced by an account of the life and inventions U Cad- 
mus, the " Father of the Alphabet," as he is often called. 

CYRUS THE GREAT, the Founder of the Persian Empire. 
By Jacob Abbott. With 40 illustrations. 

For nineteen hundred years, the story of the founder of the an- 
cient Persian empire has been read by every generation of man- 
kind. The story of the life and actions of Cyrus, as told by the 
author, presents vivid pictures of the magnificence of a monarchy 
that rose about five hundred years before the Christian era, and 
rolled on in undisturbed magnitude and glory for many centuries. 

ADVENTURES IN TOYLAND. By Edith King Hull. 
With 70 illustrations by Alice B. Woodward. 

The sayings and doings of the dwellers in toyland, related by 
one of them to a dear little girl. It is a delightful book for chil- 
dren, and admirably illustrated. 



8 ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

DARIUS THE GREAT, King of the Medes and Persians. 
By Jacob Abbott. With 34 illustrations. 

No great exploits marked the career of this monarch, who was 
at one time the absolute sovereign of nearly one-half of the world. 
He reached his high position by a stratagem, and left behind him 
no strong impressions of personal character, yet, the history of his 
life and reign should be read along with those of Cyrus, Casar, 
Hannibal and Alexander. 

XERXES THE GREAT, King of Persia. By Jacob Ab- 
bott. With 39 illustrations. 

lor ages the name of Xerxes has been associated in the minds 
of men with the idea of the highest attainable human magnificence 
and grandeur. He was the sovereign of the ancient Persian em- 
pire at the height <>f its prosperity and power. The invasion of 
Greece by the Persian hordes, the battle of Thermopylae, the burn- 
ing of Athens, and the defeat of the Persian galleys at Salamis are 
chapters of thrilling interest. 

TH1 ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE. By Miss 
Mulock, author of John Halifax, Gentleman, etc. With 
18 illustrations. 

One of the best of Miss Murlock's charming stories for children. 
All the situations are amusing and are sure to please youthful 
readers. 

ALEXANDER Till-: GREAT, King of Macedon. V>y 
Jacob Abbott. With 51 illustrations. 

Born heir to the throne of Macedon, a country on the confines 
of Europe and Asia, Alexander crowded into a brief career of 
twelve years a brilliant series of exploits. The readers of to-day 
will find pleasure and profit in the history of Alexander the Great, 
a potentate before whom ambassadors and princes from nearly all 
the nations of the earth bowed in humility. 

PYRRHUS, King of Epirus. By Jacob Abbott. With 45 
illustrations. 

The story of Pyrrhus is one of the ancient narratives which has 
been told and retold for many centuries in the literature, eloquence 
and poetry of all civilized nations. While possessed of extraordi- 
nary ability as a military leader, Pyrrhus actually accomplished 
nothing, but did mischief on a gigantic scale. He was naturally 



ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



of a noble and generous spirit, but only succeded in perpetrating 
crimes against the peace and welfare of mankind. ' 

HANNIBAL, the Carthaginian. By Jacob Abbott. With 
37 illustrations. 

Hannibal'^ distinction as a warrior was gained during the des- 
perate contests between Rome and Carthage, known as the Punic 
wars. Entering the scene when his country was engaged in peace- 
ful traffic with the various countries of the known world, he turned 
its energies into military aggression, conquest and war, becoming 
himself one of the greatest military heroes the world has ever 
known. 

MIXED PICKLES. By Mrs. E. M. Field. With 31 illus- 
trations by T. Pym. 

A remarkably entertaining story for young people. The reader 
is introduced to a charming little girl whose mishaps while trying 
to do good are very appropriately termed " Mixed Pickles." 

JULIUS CAESAR, the Roman Conqueror. By Jacob Ab- 
bott. With 44 illustrations. 

The life and actions of Julius Gesar embrace a period in Roman 
history beginning with the civil wars of Marius and Sylla and end- 
ing with the tragic death of Caesar Imperator. The work is an 
accurate historical account of the life and times of one of the great 
military figures in history, in fact, it is history itself, and as such is 
especially commended to the readers of the present generation. 

ALFRED THE GREAT, of England. By Jacob Abbott. 
With 40 illustrations. 

In a certain sense, Alfred appears in history as the founder of 
the British monarchy : his predecessors having governed more like 
savage chieftains than English kings. The work has a special 
■ value for young readers, for the character of Alfred was that of an 
honest, conscientious and far-seeing statesman. The romantic 
story of Godwin furnishes the concluding chapter of t'ne volume. 

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, of England. By Jacob 
Abbott. With 43 illustrations. 

The life and times of William of Normandy have always been a 
fruitful theme for the historian. War and pillage and conquest 
were at least a part of the everyday business of men in both Eng- 



IO ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



land and France : and the story of William as told by the author 
of this volume makes some of the most fascinating pages in his- 
tory. It is especially delightful to young readers. 

HERNANDO CORTEZ, the Conqueror of Mexico. By 
Jacob Abbott. With 30 illustrations. 

In this volume the author gives vivid pictures of the wild and 
adventurous career of Cortez and his companions in the conquest 
of Mexico. Many good motives were united with those of ques- 
tionable character, in the prosecution of his enterprise, but in 
those days it was a matter of national ambition to enlarge the 
boundaries of nations and to extend their commerce at any cost. 
The career of Cortez is one of absorbing interest. 

THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. By Miss Mulock. With 
24 illustrations. 

The author styles it "A Parable for Old and Young." It is in her 
happiest vein and delightfully interesting, especially to youthful 
readers. 

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. By Jacob Abbott. With 
45 illustrations. 

The story of Mary Stuart holds a prominent place in the present 
series of historical narrations. It has had many tellings, for the 
melancholy story of the unfortunate queen has always held a high 
place in the estimation of successive generations of readers. Her 
story is full of romance and pathos, and the reader is carried along 
by conflicting emotions of wonder and sympathy. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, of England. By Jacob Abbott. 
With 49 illustrations. 

In strong contrast to the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, is that 
of Elizabeth, Queen of England. They were cousins, yet im- 
placable foes. Elizabeth's reign was in many ways a glorious one, 
and her successes gained her the applause of the world. The 
stirring tales of Drake, Hawkins and other famous mariners of 
her lime have been incorporated into the story of Elizabeth's lfe 
and reign. 

KING CHARLES THE FIRST, of England. By Jacob 
Abbott. With 41 illustrations. 

The well-known figures in the stormy reign of Charles I. are 
brought forward in this narrative of his life and times. It is his- 
tory told in the most fascinating manner, and embraces the early 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. II 

life of Charles ; the court of James I.; struggles between Charles 
and the Parliament ; the Civil war ; the trial and execution of the 
king. The narrative is impartial and holds the attention of the 
reader. 

KING CHARLES THE SECOND, of England. By Jacob 
Abbott. With 38 illustrations. 

Beginning with his infancy, the life of the " Merry Monarch " 
is related in the author's inimitable style. His reign was signal- 
ized by many disastrous events, besides those that related to his 
personal troubles and embarrassments. There were unfortunate 
wars; naval defeats ; dangerous and. disgraceful plots and con- 
spiracies. Trobule sat very lightly on the shoulders of Charles II., 
however, and the cares of state were easily forgotten in the society 
of his court and dogs. 

THE SLEEPY KING. By Aubrey Hopwood and Seymour 
Hicks. With 77 illustrations by Maud Trelawney. 

A charmingly-told Fairy Tale, full of delight and entertain- 
ment. The illustrations are original and striking, adding greatly 
to the interest of the text. 

MARIA ANTOINETTE, Queen of France. By John S. C. 
Abbott. With 42 illustrations. 

The tragedy of Maria Antoinette is one of the most mournful in 
the history of the world. " Her beauty dazzled the whole king- 
dom," says Lamartine. Her lofty and unbending spirit under 
unspeakable indignities and atrocities, enlists and holds the sympa- 
thies of the readers of to-day, as it has done in the past. 

MADAME ROLAND, A Heroine of the French Revolution. 
By Jacob Abbott. With 42 illustrations. 

The French Revolution developed few, if any characters more 
worthy of notice than that of Madame Roland. The absence of 
playmates, in her youth, inspired her with an insatiate thirst for 
knowledge, and books became her constant companions in every 
unoccupied hour. She fell a martyr to the tyrants of the French 
Revolution, but left behind her a car°er full of instruction that 
never fails to impress itself up^r the reader. 

JOSEPHINE, Empress of France. By Jacob Abbott. With 
40 illustrations. 



12 ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

Maria Antoinette beheld the dawn of the French Revolution ; 
Madame Roland perished under the lurid glare of its high noon ; 
Josephine saw it fade into darkness. She has been called the 
" Star of Napoleon ; " and it is certain that she added luster to 
his brilliance, and that her peisuasive influence was often exerted 
to win a friend or disarm an adversary. The lives of the Empress 
Josephine, of Mari.i Antoinette, and of Madame Roland are 
especially commended to young lady readers. 

TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Charles and Mary 
Lamb. With So illustrations. 

The text is somewhat abridged and edited for young people, but 
a clear and definite outline of each play is presented. Such episodes 
or incidental sketches of character as are not absolutely necessary 
to the development of the tales are omitted, while the many moral 
lessons that lie in Shakespeare's plays and make them valuable in 
the training of the young are retained. The book is winning, help- 
ful and an effectual guide to the "inner shrine" of the great 
dramatist. 

MAKERS OF AMERICA. By Hartwell James. With 75 
illustrations. 

This \olume contains attractive and suggestive sketches of the 
lives and deeds of men who illustrated some special phase in the 
political, religious or social life of our country, from its settlement 
to the close of the eighteenth century. It affords an opportunity 
for young readers to become easily familiar with these characters 
and their historical relations to the building of our Republic. An 
account of the discovery of America prefaces the work. 

A WONDER BOOK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. By 

Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 50 illustrations. 

In this volume the genius of Hawthorne has shaped anew 
wonder tales that have been hallowed by an antiquity of two or 
three thousand years. Seeming " never to have been made " they 
are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own fancy 
as to manners and sentiment, and its own views of morality. The 
volume has a charm for old and young alike, for the author has 
not thought it necessary to "write downward" in order to meet 
the comprehension of children. 

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